•Muturi hold that senators have the power to legislate the laws and seek redress for their grievances through the same channel.
•He maintained that the National Assembly have the powers to legislate on matters affecting the national government without any reference to the Senate.
Image: ENOS TECHE
No end appears to be in sight in the supremacy duel between the two Houses of parliament after National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi accused senators of abdicating their roles by seeking to 'repeal' the 24 contested laws through the courts.
The speaker said that senators have "a sacrosanct mandate to legislate laws in the house, a role that includes amending those they don't like" rather than challenging the laws in courts.
"An MP is given power by the Constitution to make laws. This means that the MP has the power to amend or even repeal the laws that he or she feels is offending," he said.
Addressing journalists after launching the strategic plan of African Parliamentary Network Against Corruption (APNAC) Kenyan chapter at a Nairobi hotel on Thursday, the speaker said the National Assembly will stand its ground in asserting its constitutional enablement to legislate on laws that affect the national government.
Muturi was, however, evasive when asked about how practical it was for the senators to countermand the legislation by the National assembly through legislation.
"The courts have consistently ruled in favour of the National Assembly that they do not have to consult the senate in enacting laws that only affect the national government. This happened in 2016 and 2017 and no one has challenged those rulings," the speaker said.
The senators filed the suit at the Constitutional and Human rights court last Wednesday and got the green-light from judge Weldon Korir to proceed.
Asked how the parliamentary service commission will foot the legal fee of the suit given the row between the two houses, Muturi said it "would be unfair for one house to unilaterally make a decision and impose it on another."
"I don't know how the funding will be. It is unfair when one of the speakers make a unilateral decision and force the commission [PSC] to act on it," he said, throwing a further spin into the already awkward relationship between the two houses embroiled in sibling rivalry.
Some of the laws the senators want to be declared null and void are the Appropriations Act 2019, the Public Trustee (Amendment) Act, 2018, Building Surveyors Act (2018), Finance Act (2018), Capital Markets (Amendment) Act, 2018 and Supplementary Appropriations Act (2018).
Others are Sports (Amendment) Act, National Cohesion Act, Tax Laws (Amendment) And Equalisation Fund Appropriations Act.
But last week, Muturi pleaded with the senators to shelve their plan of court action urging them to embrace alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.
“In accordance with the provisions of the National Assembly Standing Orders, I hereby implore the Senate to consider, as a first instance, alternative mechanisms of resolving any dispute that may, from time to time, arise between the two Houses of Parliament,” Muturi said.
But lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi attributed the ostensible discord in the legislature on alleged poor leadership by speaker Muturi.
"When you see the senate litigating its core mandate in courts then you realize how rogue parliament has become under the calamitous leadership of speaker Justin Muturi...doesn't he personify the toxic mix of impunity and gross incompetence in 30:70 proportions?" he said in a tweet.