We will teach you a lesson you will never forget, Senator Kiraitu Murungi tells MPs

Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi is now warning members of the National Assembly that Senate will take a revenge and "teach them a lesson they will never forget" after their decision to take away the Sh1 billion that had been given to members of the upper house for their oversight duties.

Kiraitu, who was the chairman of the Senate committee on oversight, monitoring and evaluation that lobbied for the Sh1 billion told members of the Assembly to prepare themselves for a revenge, as he accused the MPs of abusing their budget-making powers by vengefully slashing budgets of key institutions.

In a move that was seen as openly fighting the "unfriendly" institutions, the MPs took away the Sh1 billion that had been allocated for senators and slashed the budgets of the Judiciary and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to raise the Sh3.3 billion that Senators had demanded be increased to the Sh283.7 billion allocation to counties.

The MPs have accused the Judiciary of being hostile to them since the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Senate in their legal battle over the enacting of the Division of Revenue Bill two years ago, where the court ruled that Senate must be involved in legislation of the law.

The legislators have also been accusing the SRC of targeting them after the Sarah Serem-led commission stopped efforts by the MPs to grant them higher perks.

"We will not take this matter lying down. We will teach them a lesson they will never forget," said Kiraitu, though he did not expound of what measures the Senate will take against the MPs.

Kiraitu said it was unfortunate that the National Assembly members had opted to play politics and use the budget-making powers to settle scores.

"It should concern Kenyans that the MPs are cutting budgets of other critical watchdog institutions in an act of revenge and vengeance, which is clearly an act of abuse of powers and contrary to national values as stipulated in Article 10 of the Constitution," said the Senator.

The Meru Senator said the action by the MPs will cripple Senators in their responsibility of conducting oversight on how public funds were being used in counties.

"What the Assembly members have done is to tell the Governors that there will be no accountability for funds given to them. That is very dangerous for devolution," said Kiraitu.

He said the move by MPs was shocking as the Sh1 billion was arrived at after consultations between the leadership of Senate and the Budget Committee of the National Assembly chaired by Mbeere South MP Mutava Musyimi.