By KIRATU KAMUNYA
The country has recently been treated incessant drama over control of House committees. On one side is the CORD, which has been making a fuss over the numerical strength of the Jubilee coalition which allows it to dominate the House committees.
Jubilee on the other side has refused to budge instead inviting CORD coalition to live with the natural consequence of election outcomes.
At the center of this controversy are the amended standing orders by the last parliament, which allows the government to chair crucial parliamentary committees like the Public Investments Committee (PIC) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which traditionally have been chaired by the Opposition.
These amendments were made at the tail end of the tenth parliament at the behest of prominent members of the CORD. The understanding is that CORD was convinced presumably from the trend in the opinion polls and in-house confidence that it was poised to form the incoming government.
In the end, Jubilee not only formed the government but a majority government at that.
It seems that CORD dug its own grave but it is not always the case that a majority government is bad for a country. In fact, it is much preferable to a hung parliament. When the Jubilee coalition went around the country soliciting for votes, they sold an agenda to the electorate.
This was contained in their manifesto which became their bargaining chip.
Luckily for them, the electorate bought their agenda in return for votes that put them into government. The contract between the Jubilee government and its voters was simple: get into government and fulfill the promises you are making to us.
To do this, the government must have a permitting platform. The controlling stake in both Senate and National Assembly is as such a big blessing and comes in handy.
Jubilee is consequently in a position to make tough decisions at a critical time when the country must move to the next level of political, social and economic reorganisation.
The government will be able to implement its agenda effectively without undue gridlock in seeking to pass necessary legislations and government business generally.
The argument by CORD is that the domination by House committees by Jubilee heralds the days of one party dictatorship and, therefore, requires to be checked.
This argument is misplaced.
There is nothing to suggest that Jubilee government is ill-intentioned or that it intends to use its majority against public good.
It is also not a well-founded argument to argue that a government should only deliver when there is a strong opposition.
Ideally, checks and balances are important in keeping the government of the day on the narrow and straight because as has been alluded to before, absolute power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
However, a government which performs at the prompting of the opposition is not a government in charge; it actually becomes the opposition front.
It very instructive that the government side consists of elected representatives of the people.
The election of these ladies and gentlemen is a demonstration of the faith that the voters had in their ability to conduct house and indeed government business.
While the role of opposition must not be underrated, government must always act on its own volition.
The importance of this approach is founded on the appreciation that no amount of opposition can create government agenda, vision, integrity and commitment to duty.
The other approach if for the CORD to move a Motion to try and amend the Standing Orders requiring the government to cede control of some of the crucial house committees. Crying wolf does not amount to much.
In a nascent democracy like Kenya, opposition is really not about keeping the government in check but about obstructing the government’s agenda in a partisan and sectarian fashion with a view to bringing down the government of the day.
The phrase that the opposition is a government in waiting is taken literally.
Having lost the election, the opposition views their platform as a payback time and an opportunity to make the government lose face.
A hung parliament is the converse of a majority parliament. Here, government hangs in the balance as no guarantee is provided that government agenda will see light of day.
It also creates avenues for political maneuvers and blackmail aimed at helping the opposition to govern from the backdoor.
But a majority government is also good for the opposition as the government in waiting as the serving government is deprived of the excuse that the Opposition frustrated its agenda and campaign promises!
The writer is a lawyer with Maina Ngaruiya Advocates.
