Parliament behaving like a freed slave without a clue

By Ken Opalo

Who runs the Kenyan Parliament? This is a question that will be at the back of the minds of legislative watchers and scholars like myself over the next four years and beyond. The answer to the question has serious implications for the continued evolution and development of parliamentary autonomy in Kenya. Thanks to the 2010 Constitution, on paper Kenya has arguably the strongest Parliament in Africa. But in practice, the institution behaves like a freed slave that knows not what to do with his freedom and so humbly returns to his former master to pledge loyalty and service.

Recent breakdown in decorum and operational competence in the House – as was demonstrated Wednesday evening in the fiasco that marked debate on the Kenya Information and Communication Amendment (KICA) Bill - point to a House that has yet to find its footing within the current institutional arrangement. The House failed to marshal the two-thirds majority required to override a presidential veto. Earlier, the Energy, Communication and Information Committee had negotiated a raft of amendments with media owners that would have provided for a less draconian media law. So did MPs stay away on “orders from above” or was it out of operational incompetence on the part of the House leadership?

As things stand the Speaker of the National Assembly is the titular head of Parliament and has immense powers. He is third in the line of succession ahead of the Senate leadership and runs an institution that independently determines its budget and calendar. In an ideal setting, the Speaker ought to run the show on matters to do with the National Assembly.

But Speaker Justin Muturi has not done this. Instead, he runs the House almost jointly with the Majority Leader Aden Duale. The framers of the Constitution were wise to entrench the position of Majority and Minority Leaders in the Constitution. I would hazard a guess that this was partly to ensure some modicum of neutrality in the part of the Speaker. You see, even though we have an American-style presidential system that provides for a highly politicised Speakership, the culture and history of Parliamentary practice in Kenya still borrows heavily from the Westminster system. Parliament in Kenya works best when the Speaker makes an attempt to be “Solomonic,” to borrow a word that was popularised in the Marende Parliament.

By failing to develop operational autonomy from the party that sponsored him to Parliament, the Speaker is eroding parliamentary autonomy in Kenya. A highly politicised Speakership only benefits Mr Duale. His (Duale’s) role is to be the spokesperson of the Executive and to drive the agenda of the President in the House. If the Speaker then also becomes an agent of State House, the two offices will effectively be fused, with Duale coming out as the real operational leader of the House. Speaker Muturi must not forget this. If he allows his office to be overshadowed by that of the Majority Leader he will have set subsequent Parliaments in the Republic on the wrong path. A strong and autonomous Parliament must be founded on the operational independence of the office of the Speaker.

Which takes me back to Wednesday evening. A lot of things went wrong, many of which exposed the weak underbelly of the National Assembly. Firstly, being head of the House Business Committee, the Speaker ought to have known that there were not enough numbers (for whatever reason) to override the presidential memorandum and struck the KICA Bill off the order paper. Secondly, the failure to honour agreements negotiated by the Energy Committee betrays a broken committee system. If the committee system is to work (which is a requisite for a functional House dealing with diverse and complex issues) the committees must be allowed to do their job. A norm must be developed to guarantee committee autonomy and power as gatekeepers and originators of legislation within their domain. Lastly, the fiasco on Wednesday exposed the fact that Speaker Muturi lacks the backbone to prevent everyday politics from interfering with the operations of the House.

It is time Muturi lived up to his duty as Speaker of the Whole House. He must lead all House members in ensuring that personal political loyalties do not distract Members from their duty to jealously defend parliamentary autonomy in Kenya.