Just what exactly should MPs wear while in august House?

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi ruled in February that the Rarieda MP was not properly dressed.

Dressed in a Chinese collar black suit, a legislator walked into the House, knowing he was appropriately dressed as per the Standing Orders.

But Kilifi Senator Stewart Madzayo was shocked when a hawk-eyed colleague told the Senate that he was not dressed in a formal manner to transact business in the chamber.

His colleague, Meru Senator Mithika Linturi, stood up on a point of order, claiming Madzayo’s dressing was not compliant with the rules of the House and asked acting Speaker Steve Lelengwe to thrown him out.

“We are more conservative than the British. It is important for people to understand what suits and shirts mean. Tanzania MPs go to Parliament without suits but kaundas or vitenges (African),” Madzayo tells the Sunday Standard while referring to the November 20 incident.

Siaya Senator James Orengo told the House that there is a need for consistent rulings on dressing, adding that the likes of former MP Koigi Wamwere never wore a tie, coat or jacket.

“If you were here in the last Senate, there were people like Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, who were dressed in this kind of attire and issues arose,” he said.

Religious attire

Orengo said Nyong’o was allowed to dress in the category of religious attire or such other dressing as may be approved by the Speaker from time to time.

“We are being overly conservative, which is not quite right. Even in our law courts, we dress better than the English. In the English Supreme Court, they do not wear the robes and wigs that we wear,” Orengo said during the debate.

He said in Scotland, some MPs walk into the House dressed in Scottish skirts yet their colleagues do not stand on a point of order that “they are showing off their legs”.

The United Kingdom’s House of Commons from where the dressing practice in Kenya was heavily borrowed revisited how members should be dressed in June 2017 and ruled that they should be in business-like attire. It said ties are no longer essential.

In Kenya, the Speaker’s Rules (Revised) 2017 provide that members are required not to enter the chamber, lounge or dining room without being properly dressed.

This means a male member shall be dressed in a coat, collar, tie, long trousers, socks and shoes, or service uniform, religious attire or such other decent dressing as may be approved by the Speaker from time to time.m An equivalent standard shall apply for women legislators who may also wear kitenge or such other African attire.

The incident involving Senator Madzayo two weeks ago came more than 15 years after former Prime Minister Raila Odinga went to Parliament wearing a brightly coloured Agbada robe and a member raised the matter.

But then Speaker, Francis ole Kaparo, ruled that as far as he was concerned, Raila was wearing a decent Nigerian attire but referred the matter to the House committee to discuss and make recommendations on the issue.

The Ministry of Culture also made an attempt to have Kenya’s national dress with an African theme in 2004 but this still remains “work in progress”.

In February this year, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi ruled on the manner in which those entering the House should be dressed because Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo donned a suit the Speaker felt was not proper.

Just like Madzayo, Amollo was dressed in a collarless suit and a matching jacket, and without a tie as prescribed in the rules.

On a Muslim kanzu, Muturi said it is universally recognised as formal dress despite being religious. “…the kanzu is acceptable within the rules governing dress code in this House provided that a member wearing a kanzu also wears a coat as an outer garment,” he said, adding that he was constrained from allowing MPs to dress in African or national dress.

“It is in the interest of members that whenever they appear in the House or its committees to transact business, they do so in decorous attire, befitting their stature as legislators and that of Parliament as an institution.”

National Assembly Minority Leader John Mbadi had pointed out that there was no difference between Amollo‘s suit and that of “Nomiya Church pastor on a Sunday”, adding that the MP comes from where the church was founded.

A year ago, in their quest to pile pressure on Parliament to pass the controversial two-thirds gender rule, 40 women MPs matched into the chambers wearing white head scarves.

Efforts by male MPs, led by Majority Leader Aden Duale, to have them kicked out of the House were thwarted by the Speaker who ruled that “they look very smart. The dress code is decent and formal, and we should congratulate them”.

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