Parliament has failed the Jubilee administration

The 2010 Constitution vastly expanded political space for many of our leaders, yet they continued to act like they are beholden to the executive branch. From the Treasury Secretary, the leadership of Parliament, to the Judiciary and independent conditions, the framers of the Constitution envisioned a system of checks and balances to ensure the Republic was governed for the benefit of wananchi. However, right after creating these great institutions we opted to staff them with little men and women lacking in vision and ambition.

Take the example of Parliament. Here is an institution that is, at least on paper, arguably the strongest in Africa. Parliament has powers to supervise various branches of the executive branch. It can fire officials it deems to have failed wananchi. It controls the budget. It can fire the President. It has the power of virement, meaning it can direct state resources to sectors it deems to be of high priority. And it controls its own budget, calendar and staff. So why is Parliament acting like an impotent appendage of the executive branch?

The answer lies in the lack of ambition among the institution’s members and, in particular, its leadership. Instead of thinking creatively about ways to improve the institution’s standing, the leadership of Parliament (in both the Senate and National Assembly) has opted to outsource their thinking and strategy to the executive branch. They have chosen to act like a caged wild animal that once freed in the while knows not how to survive and goes back to its captors. This is not a partisan issue. It is true that Jubilee controls both houses of Parliament. It is also true that the President and his deputy selected Parliament’s leadership. However, despite being executive appointees, these leaders have their powers enshrined in the Constitution. As such, they ought to exercise those powers in service of Jubilee, but in a manner that also strengthens the institution of Parliament.

Parliament can help President Kenyatta by improving its capacity for research, policy development, and general oversight of the public sector. The last four years have been marked by failed policy after failed policy coming from different corners of the Jubilee administration. What if the Jubilee run Parliament did its job? What if members of parliamentary committees did their due diligence on specific proposed policies? What if they brought in the expertise required to ensure that proposed policies were both internally coherent and logically consistent with wider goals of the Jubilee administration? What if instead of waiting for things to blow up Parliament performed its oversight role and stopped the criminals fleecing public coffers in their tracks? Wouldn’t the Jubilee administration stand to benefit?

So if it is the case that an independent and functional Parliament is beneficial to the Jubilee, why hasn’t the coalition invested in strengthening of Parliament? The answer, I believe, lies in the lack of ambition within the leadership of Parliament. They would rather remain focused on fighting a weak and at times rudderless Opposition instead of effectively doing their job. The leadership of Parliament also appears to lack a model of how to run an independent legislature. And because of that they have allowed officials in the executive branch – from Cabinet ministers to junior accounting officers from the counties to run rings around Bunge.

By being unthinkingly loyal and subservient, the leadership of Parliament has failed President Kenyatta’s Administration. For an example of what an ambitious leadership can do to an institution’s stature we need not look farther than the Judiciary. The former Chief Justice, Willy Mutunga, took the powers he had in the Constitution and used them to good effect. He was not always right, or successful. But most reasonable people would agree that he did a great job. So why isn’t Parliament’s leadership using the institution’s immense powers for the good of wananchi?