It is commendable that the Speaker of the National Assembly has pronounced himself on this unfortunate matter which has brought the House into disrepute.
The institutional integrity of Parliament has been challenged in a manner that is extremely difficult to recover. The bribery has lowered the standing of Parliament and eroded public confidence and trust in its processes and actions.
Doubts will linger on whether the legislation and decisions passed are in the best interest of the Kenyan public.
Yet, it is important that Parliament be given the opportunity to undertake its own corrective action, failure to which others should take over.
Bribery is a criminal offence that should be taken up by other agencies like DCI and EACC on their own volition. But as someone who has worked with many parliaments across the word there is need to preserve parliamentary tradition and integrity. If action is taken by external agencies and some MPs bundled into court, the institution of Parliament will suffer the kind of damage that will be difficult to repair. That's the reason I'm of the view that the National Assembly Powers and Privileges committee be left to act on the issue, perhaps in conjunction with those agencies.
While the suspected crime is actionable by investigative and prosecutorial agencies, the internal mechanisms of dealing with such issues should take precedence until when Parliament deems it appropriate for outside agencies to be called in.
Even though we expect that the necessary corrective action will be taken, Parliament has already demonstrated a low threshold for probity. To expect them to take any radical measures may be asking for too much. But for purposes of precedence and institutional integrity, Parliament itself should have the first opportunity to investigate and correct what happened within it.
Given the brazen bribery claims, skeptics are justified to doubt that it will investigate itself as members will seek to protect their colleagues. If Parliament is out to remedy that shame the committee should give itself timelines within which they will have conclusively dealt with the matter which should including identifying those who were involved and the action against them and now full blown criminality. We dug this hole when we abated and elected individuals with questionable integrity to conduct our legislative businesses as MPs. To cure the mistake, Parliament needs to enforce stringently the code of conduct of the Public Officer Ethics Act and chapter six of the Constitution on integrity and leadership.
Mboya is a lawyer. Excepts from an interview with the Star.