Parliament accused of deleting crucial clauses from Parties’ Act

By DAVID OCHAMI

The Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung’u has accused Parliament of watering down the legislation detailing how errant MPs can lose their seats.

“The provisions we had put in the Bill were removed,” she said referring to the expunged clauses in the Political Parties Act.

She said the High Court may soon shade more light on how to deal with party-hopping MPs once it rules on a case in which Makadara MP Gidion Mbuvi has challenged his expulsion from Narc-Kenya.

Ndung’u said expulsion from a party that sponsored an MP to Parliament is a lawful ground to lose a parliamentary seat under the Political Parties Act.

She added that the court would clarify the grey areas in the law regarding parties’ powers to withdraw sponsorship of errant MPs.

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She also said the ruling may determine the fate of many MPs who have been accused of violating the Act.

Errant MPs
Ndung’u told a forum of MPs in Mombasa discussing a roadmap to peaceful elections next year that changes to Political Parties Bill had made it difficult to determine at what point an MP may be deemed to have to have resigned from a party, or who could trigger the removal of an errant MP from Parliament.

She said the 100 MPs who have defected cannot automatically lose their seats because they were elected under the Societies Act and old Constitution.

She also said six MPs who she declared partyless recently cannot also automatically lose their seats on the ground of de-registration of the political parties that brought them to Parliament in 2007 because their positions are protected by Section 40 of the old Constitution.

She was responding to a question by Kinangop MP David Ngugi who had sought an explanation on the implication of being declared party-less. Ngugi’s  Sisi Kwa Sisi party was recently deregistered for not conforming to the Political Parties Act 2011.

Meanwhile, the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission will conduct fresh voter registration, the electoral body’s chairman, Isaack Hassan, has said.

He said polling stations will be increased to 40,000 up from the current 23,000.