- Senate wants the National Assembly to involve them in the passing of legislation arguing that they have been side-lined and most laws are passed without their input.
- In response, Lawyer Issa Mansur for the National Assembly said they should be allowed time to negotiate.
Image: The Star
The National Assembly and the Senate have been given 60 days to solve the long-standing tussle on the passing of legislation by the two houses.
Chief Justice Martha Koome gave the directions during the hearing of the case where the Senate has appealed the Court of Appeal decision that set aside orders of the High Court that quashed 23 laws.
Senate wants the National Assembly to involve them in the passing of legislation arguing that they have been side-lined and most laws are passed without their input.
Justice Koome was joined in virtual court by all the other 6 Supreme Court judges who will hear the matter if consent is not entered by the parties after 60 days.
The court said it was clear that there are attempts to negotiate the matter and the discussion is whether the settlement will take 21 or 60 days.
“We are ready as a court to hear it so in the event you do not reach a settlement within this period you have set the matter, we confirm is ready for hearing,” Judge Koome said.
She noted that next month the court will be proceeding on vacation so they can’t issue dates in August.
“If there is no written consent filed in the court on or before September 11, 2023, the court will give a hearing date immediately in the new term should there be no settlement,” she ruled.
She also said that the matter will be heard by the full bench of the Supreme Court because they have identified the matter as one that needs to be heard by all the judges.
In his submissions to the court, Senator Okongo Omogeni for the Senate confirmed that indeed there have been discussions between the two speakers but they have faced challenges.
“But I want to be candid and inform the court that we are still experiencing the same problems as we speak today there are already two cases where the court has issued an injunction on two laws the Finance Act and the Water regulations which were both enacted without the senate input,” Omogeni said.
In response, Lawyer Issa Mansur for the National Assembly said they should be allowed time to negotiate.
“I confirm that the two speakers of the National Assembly and Senate have set up a joint technical team comprising representatives from the two houses to develop a framework for the seamless processing of legislative functions in the two houses,” he said.
Mansur told the court that there is goodwill between the speakers of the two houses and the consultations are ongoing thus the tussle will be resolved.
However, lawyer Dudley Ochiel for Katiba Institute said the joint framework is what the Supreme Court ordered the two houses to come up and it's nothing new saying that was just a ploy to delay the matter at hand