Differences have emerged within the Senate on whether they should move to court to challenge the enactment of 18 legislations by the National Assembly without their input.
Yesterday, the senators held a Kamukunji chaired by Speaker Ken Lusaka but failed to agree on when to file the court case as only 11 legislators had appended their signatures in support.
Interestingly, the contentious issue of the Division of Revenue Bill was not discussed during the informal meeting.
Sanction
A source who attended the meeting told People Daily the senators had tried to convince Lusaka to approve the case but he insisted he can only sanction it if all the senators appended their signatures.
But after the meeting, the Speaker’s office issued a notice to the media stating that Lusaka will be leading his troops to the High Court this morning.
“The Speaker of the Senate, shall tomorrow at 8 am lead a procession of senators from Parliament Buildings to Milimani High Court. The Senate shall proceed to file a case challenging enactment of more than 20 bills without its input,” the Speaker’s notice read in part.
But People Daily later learnt that the document to be filed in court had not been agreed upon after a majority of the senators shied away and refused to append their signatures.
“Majority of my colleagues are fearing the political ramifications of their action to go to court with out the approval and consent by their party bosses, many have not signed and I don’t see them doing so,” said the senator who cannot be named for fear of being seen to be antagonising their colleagues.
Lawmakers
The meeting which was expected to be stormy going by the sentiments made by the senators, was otherwise cordial with lawmakers agreeing with the Speaker that they all needed to own the case before filing it.
Last month senators resolved to move to the High Court over the enactment of 18 pieces of legislation without their input. Senators have accused their National Assembly counterparts of elbowing them out of crucial legislative duties.
Members of the National Assembly, the senators argued, have been by-passing them in enacting laws that require concurrence of both Houses, in a move they claim is meant to declare them The Senate says the suit is meant to challenge all laws they claim have been enacted unprocedurally in the current Parliament.
The senators picked on senior counsel James Orengo (Siaya), Okong’o Omogeni (Nyamira) and Amos Wako (Busia) to represent the Senate in court.
ACCUSATIONS
The senators had accused National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi and the leadership of acting in bad faith and allocating themselves non-existent powers to frustrate the Senate.
“In the 12th Parliament, in respect of all the bills originating from the National Assembly, Speaker Muturi has not sought the concurrence of Speaker Lusaka as to whether the National Assembly bills concern counties,” said senator James Orengo.
