Leaders’ brawl shamed the whole country

Shameful. Disrespectful. Horrendous. These are some of the choice words opinion leaders used to describe the behaviour of the 11th Parliament on Thursday; an unforgettable day in Kenya's history.

Bites, rabies shots, disrobed lingerie, punches, alleged stripping and phantom punches were the order of the day in a Parliament sitting to debate a Bill with massive repercussions over the safety of every Kenyan.

However, on such a momentous occasion, civility failed to prevail, and it failed miserably.

One of the main antagonists in the chaotic drama that unfolded was Suba MP John Mbadi. During the Thursday morning parliamentary session, a visibly agitated Mbadi crossed the floor, walked up to Asman Kamama, chairman of the National Assembly’s committee on Administration and National Security, grabbed the order paper from him and tore it up. This set the stage for the acrimony that followed.

But first, the alleged abuse of Mbita MP Millie Odhiambo. This is take on the events of that day.

“Today was a day and a half but am happy we fought against tyranny though we lost partially,” she said in a social media post.

“In the process... I was boxed in the eye by Moses Kuria as one permanent drunk pulled my panty and another two pulled up my dress....

“We pride as a people in nakedness na wamejua. When they tried to undress me, I completed the process for them.

“I am fearfully and wonderfully made and have no embarrassment over my body. I cannot and will not be intimidated using my sexuality.”

It is alleged that she then proceeded to remove her inner wear. It remains unclear where she put it on after that.

The alleged aggressor in these events, the aforementioned Moses Kuria, says he was standing up as a man to defend the honour of Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso.

Speaking to The Standard on Sunday, the Gatundu South legislator admitted hitting his female colleague, but nothing more.

“I slapped her because she wanted to assault the Deputy Speaker. That was great disrespect,” he said.

“She just stripped herself. Nobody tried to undress her. She undressed herself. She was undressing there ...and even her fellow women were shocked at her actions.”

Finger bitten

The assault in which Kuria wanted to play superman involved a host of members.

At the forefront was Gladys Wanga, representing Homa Bay women in the House, who, armed with a water bottle, stealthily made her way through the crowd of agitated bodies and in swift flicks of her wrist emptied the contents onto the Deputy Speaker’s face.

All the while, no business was being conducted. Shouting continued, beamed on live television for a national and an international audience.

At another corner of the House, more was happening. Somehow, Dagoreti MP Simba Arati got his finger bitten, allegedly by Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri.

Astoundingly, this was not the first time an honourable member had had a part of his anatomy bitten. In 1999, the deceased David Mwenje and Otieno Kajwang’ sunk their teeth into each other after one of their many disagreements. Kajwang’ was bitten in the chest while Mwenje was bitten in the back.

And in the Speaker’s gallery, Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama had a number done on him. After a scuffle, he had a wound on his leg and a torn pair of trousers. He was all too pleased to pose for the media and parade his scars of war.

But amid the chaos on this dark day of Kenya’s Parliament, some voices of reason stood out.

First, Joyce Laboso, for restraining herself after the water bottle assault on her person. Given the mood in the House, she would have gone her colleagues’ way and charged back at her aggressor or flung something of her own towards Wanga. Instead, and to her credit, she kept calm.

Another notable mention was Ruaraka MP TJ Kajwang’, who, after seeing the charged mood in the House, begged the Speaker for a break to allow MPs time to prepare their amendments and cool off.

Also among the sober voices of that day was TNA chairman Johnson Sakaja, who pleaded for tolerance from both sides of the political divide.

“Even in as much as the majority must have their way, the minority must be heard. We need to listen to each other ...

“I propose that as Members, we must have an opportunity to sit informally together and go through the laws step by step and agree to disagree... We must show leadership on this issue. We cannot afford to stay on our hardline positions; give us a window to talk and agree.

“Let us listen and talk to each other. It costs us nothing to talk to each other,” Sakaja implored.

Obviously his pleas were ignored by his party members, the Opposition and the Speaker. Soon after his remarks, the honourable members went wild.

The debate then degenerated into a howling and hurling match. At the end of the day, the amendments were passed and a day later signed into law by President Uhuru Kenyatta on live television.