Palaver

The new Chamber in Parliament is so cool! Rotating TV monitors, electronic buzzers, log-ins to authenticate every communication with the Speaker, and the overwhelming red colour of the seats that gives the Chamber a very warm ambience. But perhaps it might get too warm for some of the naughty MPs who blithely ignore the Speaker’s orders and continue talking when they’ve been told to sit. Well, from now on they will look like characters in a silent movie from the early 1900s. This is because their microphones will be dead before they can blink twice. Short of jumping in their chairs and yodelling, they will be quite powerless

 

The Speaker’s job just became more attractive thanks to the new debating Chamber inaugurated by Othaya MP Mwai Kibaki. Tell us, who wouldn’t want to have total control over all the gadget wizardry in the Chamber? From his seat, the Speaker can give the floor to members by watching his screen. Not only that, but the MPs will not be able to claim they are being ignored becuase electronics do not lie, or do they? Hey, wait a minute... if they can’t see the Speaker’s screen then what is to stop him from “rigging” the process?

 

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta was so tickled by fellow legislator Chris Obure’s antics as he tried to turn on his microphone that he burst into a fit of giggling. Welcome to a brave new world where MPs will suddenly realise that we live in a digital age. But poor Chris was not the only one struggling to understand his new expensive toy on Tuesday, and he certainly won’t be the last. Parliament is going to be an interesting place to watch, at least for the next couple of days. There are MPs who will make Chris’s fumbling look like child’s play. Palaver’s advice to such legislators? Talk nicely to the House clerks  and they will give you a tutorial away from the cameras!

 

And finally...

Miguna Miguna is eerily quiet, that burly man with a booming bass who intimidated foes by his sheer size. Well, it can’t be the weather. Today’s forecast for Toronto, Canada says temperatures will be relatively warm averaging 21 degrees Celsius with winds of 5km/h and humidity at 73 per cent. Is it the lull before another storm?

 editorial@standardmedia co.ke