PIC AND PAC WHICH WAY FORWARD?

[omundustrong]

The stalemate in the national assembly about who should chair and have majority members in the two committees threatens to stall government's functions.At the heart of the matter is who is supposed to chair the two committtees that play a watchdog role on the Government.Jubilee is arguing that they have the majority numbers and therefore have a right to nominate more members in the two committees.Cord coalition on the other hand argues and rightly so,that as the opposition they need to check the government and can only do so if they have more members and chair the two committees.


since neither the constitution nor the standing orders expressly specify as to who should chair the two committees,parliament finds itself in a fix that can only be resolved using wisdom,a commodity that is in short supply in the current national assembly.The Speaker is also not helping matters by appearing to be partisan and lacking control of the house.

Without seeming to compare the current speaker to those who came before him ,he seems to lack authority,is timid,and unable to stand firm.I watched an episode where the house went into chaos and he was unable to control members who were shouting at the top of their voices at each other,this made me wish for those days of ORDER ORDER ORDER!

The speaker can still redeem himself by reacquainting himself with the standing orders,the constitution,precedents from other jurisdictions and natural wisdom to make his rulings otherwise so far he has performed dismally.

Back to the stalemate,parliament is supposed to play oversight and watchdog role on the executive and for this purpose any member of parliament from whichever coalition is supposed to play this role without being encumbered by party affiliation.The only guiding principle is fidelity to the constitution and the standing orders.If this is the case then the speaker has precedents to refer to,i have in mind a case where the Legal committee could not agree on who to chair the committee and the functions of this committeee were performed by the constitution oversight committee headed by Abkadir Hassan in the last parliament.

One way or the other,parliament has to discharge its mandate and inorder to do this there must be alot of give and take between the two major coalitions.supposing Cord is given majority members including the chair ,the decisions in the committee will still come to the floor of the house where Jubilee has a majority and may still shoot down the committee's findings,therefore there must be goodwill and the overwriting principle should be delivery of service to the people of Kenya otherwise wembe ni ule ule!

For the speaker, the ball is in your court to do what needs to be done for parliamentary business to resume.

[kamalet]

The futility of the Cord argument is that they still have the ODM-NARA mentality where they could block off stuff as if they have the numbers. Whilst Jubilee has been magnanimous in granting the chair of PAC and PIC to Cord, arguments of a majority int he said committees is untenable and the arguments that a Jubilee majority in the committee negates the oversight role simple ignores the fact that oversight is not in the committee but the whole house. If the committee report is rejected by the house then that report is useless! Without the numbers to control the house, the numbers of Cord in the committees is neither here nor there!

[jakaswanga]

May 9, 2013 9:07:47 GMT 3 omundustrong said:

The stalemate in the national assembly about who should chair and have majority members in the two committees threatens to stall government's functions.At the heart of the matter is who is supposed to chair the two committtees that play a watchdog role on the Government.Jubilee is arguing that they have the majority numbers and therefore have a right to nominate more members in the two committees.Cord coalition on the other hand argues and rightly so,that as the opposition they need to check the government and can only do so if they have more members and chair the two committees.

since neither the constitution nor the standing orders expressly specify as to who should chair the two committees,parliament finds itself in a fix that can only be resolved using wisdom,a commodity that is in short supply in the current national assembly.The Speaker is also not helping matters by appearing to be partisan and lacking control of the house.

Without seeming to compare the current speaker to those who came before him ,he seems to lack authority,is timid,and unable to stand firm.I watched an episode where the house went into chaos and he was unable to control members who were shouting at the top of their voices at each other,this made me wish for those days of ORDER ORDER ORDER!

The speaker can still redeem himself by reacquainting himself with the standing orders,the constitution,precedents from other jurisdictions and natural wisdom to make his rulings otherwise so far he has performed dismally.

Back to the stalemate,parliament is supposed to play oversight and watchdog role on the executive and for this purpose any member of parliament from whichever coalition is supposed to play this role without being encumbered by party affiliation.The only guiding principle is fidelity to the constitution and the standing orders.If this is the case then the speaker has precedents to refer to,i have in mind a case where the Legal committee could not agree on who to chair the committee and the functions of this committeee were performed by the constitution oversight committee headed by Abkadir Hassan in the last parliament.

One way or the other,parliament has to discharge its mandate and inorder to do this there must be alot of give and take between the two major coalitions.supposing Cord is given majority members including the chair ,the decisions in the committee will still come to the floor of the house where Jubilee has a majority and may still shoot down the committee's findings,therefore there must be goodwill and the overwriting principle should be delivery of service to the people of Kenya otherwise wembe ni ule ule!

For the speaker, the ball is in your court to do what needs to be done for parliamentary business to resume.

Strong Omundu,

Take a look at the following excerpt:
www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083111&story_title=

The latest bout of accusations was sparked by a claim that MPs allied to CORD who sat in the last Parliament plotted an amendment of Standing Orders in January in the mistaken belief that their presidential candidate would win the election.

A senior leader in the House said the alleged plan would have seen CORD to form government and lock out the opposition from all the committees, including watchdog teams they are now laying claim to.

Leader of Majority in National Assembly Aden Duale reminded the CORD MPs that the Standing Orders were a creation of the last parliament and the key opposition figures took part in their drafting and endorsement.

Even if the above statement is not completely true, what is true, and which I am sure you will remember, was the erratic, haphazard and criminal way with which the 10th parliament went about butchering the promulgated constitution.

Many ammendments were passed at night, barely after an hour of debate, and with barely the needed quorum.

Here is the other time-bomb ticking due to these Mpigs failing to do their homework
www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000076988&story_title=Intrigues-behind-delay-in-implementing-land-reforms

But to return to the point, common sense always dictated, and we can copy this in other functioning systems, that the opposition chair the controlling committees. This is based on the rationale of preventing 'bureaucratic incest' where the party in charge of the government essentially oversees itself! It always leads to internal rot, much expressed in the doubting Roman quip: who shall police the policeman? since then we humans in political practice wrestle with the doctrine of SEPARATION OF POWERS, to try cope with that Roman askance.

So it was, when I caught whiff of the AMENDMENTS, supported by both sides of the 10th parliament under the Raila-Kibaki thieving GCG, that essentially did away with the well-thought out stipulation which the drafters of the Constitution had inserted on the distribution of power within the committees, with respect to the Government and Opposition of the day.

We all know in companies we have worked for or work for, what an EXTERNAL AUDIT is. I mean all companies do have their own QUALIFIED ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT, yet in most countries the taxman smiles and says, I will go for a second opinion on your figures, the external auditor. Prudence, because 'cooking of books' is well... the rule?

But the 10th parliament, ammending the constitution in the dark, had better ideas about these separations of powers! and what was the big idea which learned noisy friends like Mbadi, Nyong'o, Kimunya and our young talents listed by Nereah supported?

Now we can see and begin to reap the sorrows of indiscriminate and stupidly-considered ammendments.

I think this [time wasting deadlocks in parliament] will be a running show!

I believe a few counties have stopped work. The financial bill regulating devolution is short-circuiting.

NB: with CORD threatening to boycott some sessions like the vetting of the cabinet, which could delay government business if not paralyse it ---some staff are already not getting paid and are living on hand-outs, the president and speaker could soon be forced to go UNILATERAL. That is bypass the 'stalemated'parliament.

It is a legal possibility. But there is another NAME for bypassing a parliament. No, I wont say it, I already advised Ouru elsewhere to DISBAND the whole circus.

I mean, this thing was always a coup from the start. Something has to give someday so that the real baby emerge. But the birth pangs, the labour pains are along way a-coming!