Senators are in Mombasa where they are spending their week-long recess undergoing technical induction on legislation business and oversight tools.
The lawmakers broke for the recess last Thursday after a month-long session that saw them constitute house committees as they settled down for business after the August elections.
The Senate business committee (SBC) chaired by speaker Amason Kingi was the first to arrive in the coastal city on Sunday for their training that ends on Tuesday.
SBC is considered the engine of the senate. The powerful panel schedules business for the House and is the top decision-making organ of the House.
In the absence of the speaker, the committee is chaired by Majority leader Aaron Cheruiyot.
Thereafter, induction for all senators will run from Wednesday to Friday before they resume plenary sittings on Tuesday next week.
“These events are critical to the working of the Senate, as they will provide an opportunity for the Members of SBC to better understand the mandate of the Committee,” Deputy Majority leader Tabitha Keroche said.
“The second induction of Senators will largely focus on the various tools and mechanisms available to Senators.”
Tabitha disclosed that the lawmakers will be taken through standing orders to better their understating of the procedures and appreciate transactions of Business in the Senate.
Some 50 out of the 67 senators are first-time legislators and thus need to be equipped to undertake their legislative duties and activities effectively.
This is the second induction the lawmakers will be undergoing after the initial one that happened days after they were sworn in on September 8.
Speaking to the Star, Senate Clerk Jeremiah Nyegenye said that the second induction will be a technical one as it will go into details of the lawmakers’’ work.
“In the first induction, the induction was general, in nature. For example, we told them that Standing Orders are rules that guide house procedures, and that was it,” Nyegenye said.
“But the one (induction) we are planning, we will go into details. We will go to the nitty gritty of standing orders, committee operations, relations between committees, and many more,” he added.
According to the programme seen by the Star, top house leadership led by the speaker, deputy speaker, senior senators, former senators, clerk and senior directors in the senate are among those who will lead sessions.
Makueni governor and former senator Mutual Kilonzo Jr, former Center for Multi-Party Democracy char Omingo Magara and former nominated senator Judith Pareno are among those who will make presentations.
The Senators will break for the Christmas holiday on December 1 and resume regular sittings on February 7, 2023, for the second session of the Fourth senate.
