• Danvas Makori declared to the committee he is related to Borabu MP Zadoc Ogutu, who said they have no blood relationship whatsoever.
• Former Rangwe MP Philip Okundi on Thursday stunned members of the National Assembly’s National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity committee when he disowned his year of birth as was indicated in the national ID.
Image: FILE
There was drama during a House committee meeting to vet eight President Uhuru Kenyatta’s nominees to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission after one of them was disowned by Bomachoge Borabu MP Zadoc Ogutu immediately he told the committee that they are related. Danvas Makori declared to the committee that apart from committee chairman Maina Kamanda, who is his father-in-law, he is also related to Ogutu, something that was immediately dismissed. “I have no blood relationship whatsoever with Danvas. I have no friendship with Danvas, I have nothing to do with Danvas. Danvas comes from Nyamira county and I come from Kisii,” Ogutu said.
Just how unequal is the law treating Members of Parliament? Well, it seems George Orwell's statement that some animals are more equal than the others applies in Parliament. The Standing Orders, which guide behaviour and conduct in the House, is expressly clear that no stranger (non-member) is allowed to address the press at the Parliament media centre but this seems not to apply to National Assembly’s majority leader Aden Duale who not only tagged along Governors Ali Korane (Garissa) and Mohamed Mahmud (Wajir) to a press conference at the facility but also invited them to address the media on the emotional issue of 2019 population census figures, which had not gone well with the three counties of the Northeastern region.
Former Rangwe MP Philip Okundi on Thursday stunned members of the National Assembly’s National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity committee when he disowned his year of birth as was indicated in the national ID he had personally tabled before the committee chaired by nominated MP Maina Kamanda. Embakasi South MP Julius Mawathe had questioned him about his advanced age and how it will be taken by millions of Kenyan youths who are unemployed despite having the requisite training. Okundi, according to his ID is aged 78, having been born in 1941. The former lawmaker without telling the committee his actual age denied having been born in 1941, saying there was no documentation of births during their times and he arbitrarily chose 1941 for the sake of sitting the national examinations where one’s date of birth was a mandatory requirement. Okundi was nominated to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission.
A slow wave of protest is taking shape at the National Assembly in protest by MPs over President Uhuru Kenyatta's veto powers. The plot, insiders in the scheme say, is to frustrate the government's legislative agenda by denying the House the required quorum. This was executed on Tuesday after members stayed away from the plenary, a time when they were needed to build numbers to overturn the president's memo. Wednesday sittings were equally paralysed while Thursday's was cut short for lack of business - whose proponents also stayed away. Those behind the scheme say they are ready to go for the long haul, "until the presidency stops legislating on behalf of Parliament". However, those against the idea say the members are being dishonest as they still sign attendance registers. The protesters have been challenged to forfeit their committees sitting allowance as attending the sessions amounts to taking part in House business.