MPs walk out of House protesting over proposed changes in bill

National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale [PHOTO/STANDARD]

Opposition MPs yesterday walked out of the debating chambers at the National Assembly to protest what they said were illegal amendments that President Uhuru Kenyatta had proposed to the Public Audit Bill 2015.

The MPs said the changes contained in the presidential memo were "illegal and unconstitutional". They said the office of the Auditor General was independent and there was no point making it subservient to the Public Service Commission so as to curtail its freedom to pick suitable staff.

Minority Leader Francis Nyenze and his deputy Jakoyo Midiwo led their troops in an unsuccessful fight to have the presidential memo dropped because of procedural queries, but the presiding Speaker Moses Cheboi said the MPs needed the numbers to reject the amendments.

"It is not that we cannot do anything; we don't have the numbers," said Cheboi.

The Opposition lawmakers said they had seen a "pattern where President Kenyatta was busy stifling all the independent institutions involved in the fight against corruption".

Nyenze, Eseli Simiyu (Tongaren), Oburu Oginga (nominated), James Nyikal (Seme), Makali Mulu (Kitui Central), Peter Kaluma (Homa Bay Town), James Oyoo (Muhoroni), Abdulswamad Sharriff (Mvita) and Ferdinand Wanyonyi (Kwanza) slammed the President's memo.

"Jubilee has eaten up every institution that deals with corruption," said Kaluma.

They said the Head of State was slowly encroaching on the legislative mandate of the National Assembly. "We shall be going to court," said Oburu.

The CORD MPs said kicking out the anti-graft commissioners and the threat of sacking the Director of Public Prosecutions were all part of a plot to entrench corruption.

"People should wake up and see what is happening. We are slowly sliding into authoritarian tendencies," said Eseli.

Oburu said the procedure only required the President to "express his reservations and not give his amendments to the law". "In the 20 years that I have been an MP, I have never seen something like this happen," said Oburu.

Makali added: "The Finance Committee rejected all these proposals from the President, but now we are here discussing them. The 'Noes' have it, but because we don't have the numbers, the Speaker is allowing this Bill to become law".

But Majority Leader Aden Duale said the President had a right to make proposals and those who disagree should contest the matter in court.

"There's no independent institution which has absolute powers. That is why the National Assembly, the Judiciary and the Senate have the power to check all these institutions," said Duale.

Nyikal said the Public Service Commission could direct other public bodies on what they ought to do when recruiting staff, but the office of the Auditor General was an independent body.

The MPs also had a problem with the procedure because the quorum was not in the House to defeat the presidential memo.

"If the law says we need a majority of two-thirds of all members of this House to defeat the presidential memo, it means we should not discuss it before we have two-thirds in the House. Because, every time the Nays have it, the Speaker says 'the Ayes have it' and when we ask, he says, we are not 233 MPs. This is illegal," said Nyikal.

There were 74 MPs in the House yesterday.