Parliament wants more powers on public petitions

Parliament may soon amend its Standing Orders to give it more teeth in addressing issues raised by members of the public through petitions.

Speaker Justin Muturi told members Parliament was currently not bound to make any resolutions on the petitions, reducing it to a toothless bulldog on important questions raised by the public.

According to the speaker, some of the petitions dealt with by the House are “so serious”, but without a mechanism to effectively pronounce itself, the petitions end up as mere formalities.

“The avenue of petitions has certain limitations. Standing Orders only require that a committee makes its findings and reports directly to the petitioner and table report before the House,” said the Speaker.

“Some of the petitions require the House to delve into very serious matters, yet the House is thereafter not allowed to do anything.”

Article 119 states that every person has a right to petition Parliament to consider any matter within its authority, including to enact, amend or repeal any law.

A civilian presenting a petition cannot speak for more than five minutes unless with permission of the Speaker, and any comments thereafter from members should not exceed 30 minutes.

Petitions forwarded to the relevant House committees are not debated once tabled before Parliament.

This means that MPs cannot ventilate on contents of the report or introduce any amendments as happens with all other reports tabled by House committees.

“The Clerk shall, within 15 days of the decision of the House, in writing, notify the petitioner of the decision of the House on the petition,” reads Standing Order 227.

Should the Standing Orders be amended, authorities that fail to implement resolutions made on civilian petitions could be sanctioned by the House.