MPs furious with Senate’s unwillingness ‘to play ball’

By Tobias Chanji

Kwale, Kenya: Members of the National Assembly have complained that it is getting increasingly difficult to work with the Senate.

The legislators noted that the fact that Jubilee has a majority in both houses has not helped matters, even after MPs held a meeting with the President and his deputy to discuss the issue.

They said this during an appraisal meeting of members of the National Assembly to discuss the House’s performance last year, held at the Leisure Lodge Hotel in Kwale County.

MPs from both sides, mainly chairmen and women of committees, expressed disappointment with the Senate with some proposing that it be isolated it if it does not “co-operate.”

First to complain about the relationship between the Houses was the Leader of Minority Francis Nyenze, whose bitter sentiments were supported by Githunguri MP Njoroge Baiya.

“We are continuously finding it difficult to work with the Senate. The majority leader and I have tried but we have failed. It is high time we chart a way forward as a House to either treat it casually or go it alone,” said Nyenze during the forum that was opened by Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso.

Describing the Senate as “people who do not want to play ball”, Nyenze asked the National Assembly to look for an amicable way of unlocking the impasse between the two Houses.

Baiya was, however, cautious arguing that the Senate “is a constitutional institution that is there to stay” but lamented the lack of co-operation and wondered how the two Houses could not work together yet the Jubilee government holds majority seats in both.

“You know we are wondering how we cannot get a solution, yet Jubilee holds majority members in both Houses. What if we had majority in only one House?” posed Baiya.

The deputy speaker disclosed that she, with other leaders, had met the President with his deputy recently to try and get an amicable solution on the relationship between the Houses.  “One time we had a session with the President and his deputy where we decided that if the two Speakers cannot talk, the majority and minority leaders from the two Houses can compel them to do so,” said Laboso.

A mediation committee formed to solve impeding issues between the two Houses has not also been well utilised, added the deputy speaker.

The majority leader Aden Duale argued that the only way to address some of the confusion was to review the current Constitution amicably.