National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi imposes foreign travel ban to make MPs work

Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi during parliament open day on 25/9/15. The speaker told the House that he would not allow lawmakers to take trips to other countries unless he was satisfied that they had handled all business that is pending before their respective committees. (PHOTO: BEVERLYNE MUSILI/ STANDARD)

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi yesterday told MPs that he would impose a ban on all foreign travel to make sure that MPs act on parliamentary investigations that have been pending in the House for over a year.

The speaker told the House that he would not allow lawmakers to take trips to other countries unless he was satisfied that they had handled all business that is pending before their respective committees.

"We will now have an administrative ban on these trips. People must work. They will not be allowed to leave the country without tabling a report of their work here," Mr Muturi said.

The speaker said many MPs had brought petitions to the House on behalf of their constituents, but the committees had delayed to give their verdict on the prayers that the petitioners make to the House.

He also said that there were so many bills that were pending before committees yet MPs were in no hurry to legislate.

Constitutional deadlines

"We have a lot of remaining work that is not being acted upon. There are bills that have constitutional deadlines, and yet we are not seeing reports," he said.

He continued: "So very soon, if you get affected by the ban, just know that it is because something you were supposed to do in your committee was not done on time."

Muturi told MPs that he was privy to excuses that committees failed to adopt reports because they lacked the requisite numbers to do so. Just a simple majority of committee members is enough to adopt a report of a committee.

"How can a committee of 29 members lack the numbers to adopt a report? I also