Unhappy with the way President Uhuru Kenyatta has been rejecting bills approved by the National Assembly, MPs now plan to curtail his powers.
The MPs have drawn up a legislative proposal with far-reaching amendments to the Constitution which, among other things, wants to remove the President's veto powers.
A source at the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee (CIOC) intimated to the Star that the plan followed concerns that the Executive is usurping the law-making role of the National Assembly.
The feeling in the committee is that President Kenyatta - and by extension, the Executive – is keen on overruling Parliament, “knowing it would be difficult to achieve the numbers to overturn such decisions.”
The House needs to raise at least two-thirds majority ( 233 of the 349 members) to overrule any memorandum by the head of state.
The President recently vetoed a bill that would have allowed the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) to define employment terms for MPs and staff.
The Parliamentary Service Bill, 2018, would have seen the PSC determine MPs' salaries and allowances and vary the same as the legislators please.
In June, President Kenyatta rejected MPs bid to deny the Kenya National Shipping Line to operate the Sh30 billion Mombasa Port’s second container terminal.
Uhuru vetoed the amendments to the Merchant Shipping (Amendment) Act, 2019, which stipulated that an entity allowed to operate the port had to be wholly owned by the state.
The same month, Parliament lost its bid to allow brokers to collect premiums on behalf of insurance companies - proposals that formed part of the Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2019.
It is on this basis that the CIOC wants the supreme law changed to define an achievable threshold - not specified yet, for Parliament to amend reservations by State House.
Among the radical proposals seen by the Star – to be pushed through a parliamentary initiative is for the President to nominate Cabinet Secretaries from among MPs.
The CIOC, chaired by Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni, also seeks to retire the positions of Woman Representatives, nominated women senators, and nominated MCAs in 10 years after 2022.
Currently, political parties nominate 16 women to the Senate proportionate to their strengths.
CIOC also wants to amend the supreme law for the President to assign the Attorney General duties of a Cabinet Secretary.
Kioni’s team also seeks to have the law changed to enhance the separation of powers between the Legislature and the Judiciary.
MPs also want the First Schedule changed to delist Nairobi as a county and designate it as the Metropolis City of Nairobi
A bill is also underway that proposes to bar courts from issuing orders against Parliament and its activities.
The CIOC further wants the law changed to provide for governors to appoint chief executive committee members from among members of County Assemblies (MCAs).
Further, the Kioni committee wants to merge constitutional commissions and reduce the number of members in those agencies. The details of the merger are scant.
The lawmakers also want to effect changes that define the procedure of conducting a national referendum.
The MPs seek to have the First Schedule changed to delist Nairobi as a county and designate it as the Metropolis City of Nairobi.
Kioni’s team wants to be allowed to chart the ways of actualising the findings of the Auditor General report following a socio-economic audit of the Constitution.
The motion states that the changes form part of what various stakeholders who appeared before it cited as impediments to implementing the supreme law.
However, the House Business Committee reportedly shot down the motion, raising issues with the procedures followed by the Kioni-led CIOC in respect of the motion.
As such, the leadership advised the committee to put the proposal in the form of a report which can then be tabled as a substantive agenda in the plenary.
A source at the House Business Committee said they further opposed the motion on grounds it seemed an attempt to introduce a debate on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) through the backdoor.
The Speaker Justin Muturi-led team raised concerns on why the CIOC would want to push for the amendments yet the BBI report is due to be released soon.
Majority leader Aden Duale, his minority counterpart John Mbadi, Benjamin Washiali (Majority whip), Junet Mohamed (Minority whip), Amos Kimunya (MP Kipipiri), Makali Mulu (Kitui Central), Joyce Akai (Turkana), Mishi Mboko (Likoni), Mwangaza Kawira (Meru), Shadrack Mose (Kitutu Masaba), and Godfrey Osotsi (nominated) are members of the committee.
Mbadi was among those who are said to have pushed for the rejection of the motion, which is full of contradictions.
The Suba South MP curtly told the Star: “I wouldn’t want to discuss matters of the committee.”
Members questioned the claim by Kioni that his committee had engaged various stakeholders yet they still want to go around the country to collect views from Kenyans.
“They wanted us to allow them to convert the CIOC into a select committee to push for the amendments to the Constitution yet the BBI is about to issue its report,” another member of the House Business Committee said.
“We saw this as an attempt to sabotage the BBI or to start a process that is parallel to the BBI,” the member who sought anonymity said.
The committee advised on the need to consult all political parties to nominate members of the select committee instead of having the CIOC deal with the amendments.
Some members voted that a select committee should purely be appointed as a committee of Parliament but not convert an existing committee into a review team.
The general feeling is that Kioni’s team is an attempt to subject the BBI report to debate in Parliament.
“It would not be easy to allow that yet. There is information out there of some ulterior motives to fight the BBI process should it seek to engage Parliament.”
Some members felt that there was no proper consultation and advised the CIOC to submit a report, with recommendations, on its bid to amend the Constitution.
Kioni told the Star yesterday that the committee wanted to execute the matter in line with its mandate.
“We have not received a report from the House business committee, hence I wouldn’t know what they decided,” the MP said.
If the plan sails through, it would usher the third initiative to amend the Constitution after those of the BBI and Punguza Mizigo of Thirdway Alliance's Ekuru Aukot.
