House unveils biometric register to monitor MPs

Parliamentary Agriculture Committee chairman Noor Mohamed (left) and members John Kobado and Opiyo Wandaye when they  addressed a press conference, Tuesday. [PHOTO: BONIFACE OKENDO]

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU

Kenya: MPs have been warned that their  attendance in Parliament will now be monitored closely through a foolproof electronic system.

On Tuesday, the National Assembly introduced a new biometric system to register MPs every day as they enter  the debating chamber.

House Speaker Justin Muturi said the electronic system became effective yesterday afternoon but would run concurrently with the manual registration for a week to ensure smooth transition.

There had been claims that some members manipulated the manual registration by having colleagues or other officials sign on their behalf to claim sitting allowances, even while they never attended sittings.

But Muturi said that was true, and explained that the system was installed to help monitor attendance to ensure compliance with constitutional provision on the number of sittings a member can skip.

“Contrary to what the media has reported, the new system is not about fraud. It is also to ensure compliance with article 103 of the Constitution,” Muturi told the House yesterday afternoon when MPs resumed the sittings for the Second Session of the 11th Parliament.

He read out Article 103 (1) of the Constitution that stipulates: “The office of a Member of Parliament becomes vacant — (b) if, during any session of Parliament, the member is absent from eight sittings of the relevant House without permission, in writing, from the Speaker, and is unable to offer a satisfactory explanation for the absence to the relevant committee.”

Earlier, Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso told The Standard that all the 349 MPs have until the end of the week to have their details captured in the biometric system, so that, come next week, they will just have to press a finger on the fingerprint reader and their presence will be automatically registered.

The MPs will now have to place any of their fingers of either hand on the  fingerprint reader, which will capture their details, instead of the manual process where they used to queue to pen down their signatures against their respective names.

Dr Laboso said the manual signing was “giving us problems”.

“We decided that the best way is for us to have a biometric system. They will use their fingerprints to register at the door of the chamber. Such a register is important for the House because we use it to determine who is present and who is not, and we also use it to process their sitting allowances,” said Laboso.

While the Deputy Speaker did not elaborate on the problems, insiders in the National Assembly said the process was slow, caused crowding at the entrance and was prone to abuse by some of the MPs, who asked their colleagues to sign in on their behalf.

Laboso added that the lawmakers will still use their smart cards — embedded with details of their name and constituency — to alert the Speaker that they are ready to contribute to the debate in the House.