The Senate leadership has been told to stop dragging the name of President Uhuru Kenyatta in its failure to pass the contentious Division of Revenue Bill.
Lugari MP Ayub Savula on Thursday said both Senate Majority leader Irungu Kang’ata and his Minority counterpart James Orengo failed to whip members to pass the Bill despite having the numbers.
Savula called for their resignation instead of blaming the President.
On Tuesday, the senators defied the lobbying of President Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga and failed to pass the Bill. Instead, they came up with individual amendments which also never saw the light of the day.
Orengo blamed the deadlock on the "inaccessibility" of President Kenyatta.
“The thing President Mwai Kibaki did probably no other president would be able to do. I am not ashamed of saying that. I am advising the current president to be more accessible for him to enable us to resolve these problems,” he said.
He added: “We would not have been here if he was more accessible, I’m telling you without being afraid. I’m not saying it for me, I’m saying it for the country.”
Savula said Orengo, being a lawyer, knows the doctrine of separation of powers as enshrined in the Constitution. As such the President had no role on matters legislation.
“Why should the Senate have been waiting to consult the President? The formula came from an independent institution and did not require the President’s input.
"Uhuru is serving under the new Constitution as opposed to retired President Kibaki who served under an arrangement where Cabinet ministers sat in Parliament,” he said.
President Kenyatta and Raila had advised their troops to pass the CRA formula or at worst revert to the previous schedule.
Orengo said the President's direct intervention would have saved the situation.
The standoff in the Senate threatens to plunge the 47 counties into a cash crisis and disrupt services.
- mwaniki fm
