CORD, Jubilee spoiling for major fight in House

Jubilee and CORD are set for another round of contest on the floor of the House as the opposition readies itself to push for its agenda.

The fate of the electoral commission, amendments to the law seen as tailored to weaken the land commission, executive clamour to remove parliamentary oversight on deployment of troops within the country and implementation of a report on historical injustices are among the friction points.

Top on the list is the fate of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) whose petition to disband it has been rejected by the Jubilee-controlled Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.

Activist Wafula Buke filed the petition that has been rejected and now it remains to be seen whether CORD can marshal enough numbers to overturn the verdict and commence the process of removing the Issack Hassan-led commission.

But the justice committee said its task was not to recommend the dissolution of the commission but to consider if there were strong grounds to push the matter to subsequent legal channels.

"Upon due consideration and review of the presentations, the committee did not find a prima facie case against members of the IEBC for violation of the aforesaid laws," reads the report.

However, CORD MPs registered their dissenting opinion and vowed to oppose the report on the floor of the House.

Majority Leader Aden Duale says it is unlikely that CORD can marshal enough numbers to overturn this verdict given that even its own members in the committee supported the report.

CORD is also pushing for the full implementation of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) report after the same justice committee amended part of the report to expunge the name of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

"We reject attempts by the Executive through Parliament to bastardise the TJRC Report and demand the immediate implementation of the original and unadulterated report," reads the resolution announced by Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale.

On this, Duale said CORD was playing politics and that if they were genuine, they could have used the House Business Committee to fast-track debate on the report instead of accusing the Executive.

The other bone of contention is the move by the Ministry of Lands to sponsor amendments that seek to weaken the National Land Commission (NLC) and transfer some of the powers from the commission to Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu.

The ministry seeks to amend the NLC Act, the Land Registration Act and the Land Act, and remove the powers to manage public land on behalf of both the county and national governments from the Muhamad Swazuri-led commission and hand them to Ngilu.

The Government also through the miscellaneous amendment statute seeks to amend the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) Act so as to remove parliamentary oversight when deploying the military in internal security operations. But CORD has vowed to block this amendment even as they push for the withdrawal of Kenyan troops from Somalia, a proposal that Jubilee has rejected.

During an ODM Parliamentary Group (PG) meeting held last week at Orange House, party leader Raila Odinga led MPs in demanding for a clear timetable for the withdrawal of Kenyan forces.

Raila and the CORD brigade claim the operation is shrouded in mystery, with the Government not disclosing the number of causalities even as his co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka recently claimed the soldiers' mandate had changed from security to illegal business which includes selling of charcoal and smuggling of counterfeits.

Jubilee MPs who chair the Foreign Relations & Defence and National Security & Administration teams held a press conference to rejects calls for KDF withdrawal. Ndung'u Gethenji and Asman Kamama termed the demands as unpatriotic and hypocritical.