{UAH} Devolution headed for collapse?

Senators kipchumba murkomen (left), gg kariuki (centre) and kajiado Central mp joseph nkaissery share a word at parliament Buildings yesterday, moments after mps and Senators met to strategise on how to tame governors on spending. Photo/Johnson Njenga

The fray among the three arms of Government and the county governments escalated to explosive proportions yesterday, with two institutions threatening to decimate each other. There was no let-up in the showdown as Senators and MPs fired threats at the governors and the Judiciary, while the County bosses dug in and postured with their own weapon of initiating action to scrap the Senate. Parliament moved to make real the threat to strip governors of constitutional powers bestowed on them as the two houses met in a joint Kamukunji (informal session) and resolved to fast-track the passage of the County Development (Amendment) Board Bill.

In the Bill, moved by Senator Stephen Sang, governors would be reduced to mere county secretaries, stripping them of powers to oversee the general running of their regions. But, even as the MPs began the steps to clip the governors’ powers, the latter threatened to counter this with an initiative to disband the Senate. Dismissing senators as “idlers who serve no purpose”, Migori Governor Okoth Obado revealed they were planning to collect a million signatures from the people to facilitate a constitutional review that would ratify doing away with the Senate.

“These people calling themselves senators are just idling at the assembly with nothing to do but brew controversies, forgetting the role for which the citizens elected them. Their positions should be scrapped immediately,” said Obado (See Separate story Page 8). Sang’s Bill proposes that the county boards be empowered to consider and adopt regional annual budgets before they are tabled in the county assemblies for approval.

Under the proposed law, governors’ roles would be to handle salaries while the development component of respective counties would be the mandate of the senators. The powerful county boards would be mandated to determine how funds are spent and, under the chairmanship of the senators, to allocate monies, a role which is currently the preserve of the governors. Members of the two houses were unanimous, according to a source who cannot be named, that they first end their own supremacy differences for the sake of their unity in dealing with the governors.

To give the new boards teeth to deal with the governors, the members resolved to have the allocations from the national to the county governments whittled down from 32 per cent to the constitutional threshold of 15 per cent of the total national budget, while the other 17 per cent is given to the Constituency Development Fund that is under MPs. The ‘Kamukunji’ that was chaired by the speakers of the two houses, Justin Muturi and Ekwee Ethuro, also resolved to disregard a court order barring the Senate from continuing with a probe on nine govervors accused of mismanagement.

Muturi and Ethuro told the meeting they had already initiated dialogue with Chief Justice Willy Mutunga to iron out differences between the two arms of government. Further, the Senate was advised not to be enjoined in a suit filed by the governors at the Supreme Court seeking a constitutional interpretation of the summons for the nine. It was agreed that the Auditor General be called to appear before the Senate Finance committee today after which the governors named in the report would be summoned for the second time, failure to which the Director of Public Prosecutions would be asked to prosecute them.

The nine governors have refused to appear before the Billow Kerrow-led Senate Finance committee and instead chose to move to court. The MPs will also fast-forward the National Flag, Emblems and Names (Amendment) Bill (2013), to deny governors such privileges as flying the national flag on their limousines and the title of ‘Your Excellency’. The Bill was moved in the first session of the 11th parliament by Eldas Member of Parliament Adan Keynan.

The Judiciary came under fire during the meeting but the members agreed that dialogue between the parliamentary leadership and the CJ be given a chance. A section of the legislators, mainly from the Jubilee coalition, will be asking President Uhuru Kenyatta not to appoint 25 new judges. MPs claim the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) meeting that recommended the appointments was improperly constituted, as it included six members who, at the time, had been suspended by the President.

The meeting also agreed that a process to amend the Vetting of Judges and Magistrates Act to ensure judicial officers employed after 2010, and who were exempted from the board’s scrutiny are vetted, be fast-tracked. Addressing the media after the meeting, Kerrow, said: “We have agreed that we are going ahead with our summonses to the governors. We shall proceed with the process of inviting individual governors or council of governors to shed light on their counties’ expenditure.” - By ANTHONY MWANGI

--

*A positive mind is a courageous mind, without doubts and fears, using the experience and wisdom to give the best of him/herself.

 

 We must dare invent the future!
The only way of limiting the usurpation of power by
 individuals, the military or otherwise, is to put the people in charge  - Capt. Thomas. Sankara {RIP} ’1949-1987

 *“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent

revolution inevitable”**…  *J.F Kennedy