Absenteeism in Parliament should not be tolerated

Last week, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Justin Muturi, warned that MPs who miss parliamentary sessions without his permission or valid reason risk disciplinary action.

MPs who miss eight consecutive sittings without permission risk losing their seats. The caution followed high incidences of absenteeism in Parliament. It has been observed that some honourable members spend more time on foreign trips and other things than on debating issues in Parliament.

In an apparent reaction to this warning, MPs have come up with a scheme, through a memo, to thwart any effort to stem rampant absenteeism by attempting to amend a section of the Constitution. If successful, it will allow them the freedom to miss as many parliamentary sessions as possible without first notifying the speaker.

Absenteeism in the House affects house business. It also impacts on proceedings and erode the quality of debate. Lack of quorum has on many occasions led to adjournments, ultimately eating into Parliament's calendar.

Besides, there is always danger of unpopular Bills that only need simple majority to sail through, being passed in the absence of many members. This, again, explains why parliamentarians should not be allowed any liberty to determine how and when they should attend parliamentary sittings.

Towards the end of the tenth Parliament, sessions were extended into the night to beat deadlines as it laboured to discuss Bills that had a time frame.

This should not be the norm and MPs need to be reminded that failure to attend parliamentary sessions is failure to fully represent the interests of the electorate.

This can be viewed as a betrayal of the trust bestowed upon them by their constituents. In any case, MPs only have four sittings every week, and for this, they draw huge allowances. They should not therefore seek ways of keeping themselves away from work without expecting to be held accountable.

While neighbouring countries have put in place mechanisms to curb cases of absenteeism, our parliamentarians want to do the opposite.

Early this year, two MPs in Uganda, Gen David Sejusa and Tony Kipoi, lost their seats as a result of persistent absenteeism. Their Parliament had introduced penalties that include cuts in subsistence and other allowances for those who miss sessions.

In South Africa, a member who misses only three sessions faces a fine of 1,000 rands (Sh9,000). Australia, in a bid to control absenteeism, cut down on the number of days that MPs could be absent from 21 to 12.

This goes a long way to show how other countries are determined to ensure elected Members of Parliament do the work for which they were elected and serve their constituents as expected.

If our MPs are allowed to have their way, they will end up doing selfish things to the detriment of the tax payer and only make technical appearances in the house to avoid being unseated. Our legislators are among the best remunerated in the world with plenty of perks. It is necessary they work extra hard to justify their perks.