Grave disorder in Parliament as MPs throw blows

By Waweru Mugo

Kenya: One Thursday afternoon 34 years ago, Parliament was treated to a rare spectacle - an assistant minister allegedly brandishing a knife and hunting down a colleague perhaps to settle once and for all their supremacy war. Luckily, someone heard the commotion and in the nick of time rushed to separate the two before blood was spilled. 

But as fate would have it, Health assistant minister and Kirinyaga West MP James Njiru ended up in hospital even as his attacker - Assistant Minister for Transport and Communications Nahashon Njuno boasted that he was lucky to escape with his life!

“He is lucky that I gave him only my left (jab); had it been the right, he would be a dead man now,” wrote Pan African News Agency (PANA) quoting Njuno in his address to the Press soon after the October 13, 1980 duel in the Members’ Private Room.

But how would this happen right inside the seemingly safe and secure House? Njiru, in a personal statement would moments later tell an attentive House that the attack was well choreographed. Indeed, he had been alerted of the impending danger on his dear life- “that a certain MP was looking for me so that he could stab me with a knife”.

Consequently, he had alerted Parliament police and the Deputy Speaker of the threats, he said, but the latter never took the matter seriously. When it eventually happened, he was left to his own devices.

“I went through the Members’ Private Room and when I was looking at another file, I felt someone hit me very hard with a chair and I fell down. I discovered that my attacker had a small knife, and I got hold of his arm,” he said, much to the disbelief of MPs.

He went on, “Thank God that some security people came to my rescue though my attacker managed to run away… That man is Hon Njuno.”

Assistant Minister for Livestock Development Charles Murgor (Eldoret South MP), a witness to what he termed “a shameful thing” narrated: “I saw Hon Njiru and Hon Njuno fighting. So I had to go and push away Hon Njuno who disappeared.”

The antagonists had had long drawn out battles for political supremacy in Kirinyaga County. They had severally clashed in Parliament and in political rallies. In July of the same year for example, Njiru accused Njuno on the floor of Parliament of misrepresenting facts regarding a near riotous political rally they had both attended.

He told Parliament that Njuno in his House contribution dwelt on “petty” subjects and misrepresented facts on the rally; accused him of being “unco-operative”, “bringing misunderstanding amongst leaders and people of Kirinyaga”, “creating unrest” and “refusing to pose” for a unity photograph with other politicians at the rally. This is thought to have catalysed the attack.

Twenty years later, the august House would be treated to yet another drama, as two MPs reportedly engaged in a hide and seek affair following a fight. On January 20, 2000, the combative Embakasi MP David Mwenje and his Mbita colleague Otieno Kajwang’ reportedly exchanged blows in the members’ lobby.

The incident would turn comical come the following day when Mwenje brought within Parliament tens of goons from across city slums to “teach Kajwang’’ a lesson”.

As the hoodlums lay in wait for their prey, Mwenje showed journalists - he removed his shirt - deep bite marks on his shoulder ostensibly inflicted by Kajwang’’ the previous day!  And in an address to his supporters, he vowed to hunt down his prey “like a rabbit”. He wondered, “How can he bite a general?”

Though unclear what specifically caused the bad blood, during the vote of no confidence in Vice President George Saitoti’s in June 1999, Mwenje - a VP ally - cut short the mover (Mr Kajwang’) severally, with varied points of order. He claimed Kajwang’, a lawyer, had conned/ stolen from 26 clients, been sued over the matter and therefore had no moral authority to question Saitoti’s integrity.

1.9m stolen

When Kajwang’ linked runaway inflation to Saitoti’s term at the Treasury in the 1990s saying, “The citizens of this country, 50 per cent of them are hungry, malnourished and cannot afford one square meal because of the effects of the money supply in this country,” Mwenje got furious.

He shot back, “Other people are going hungry and are malnourished because of Mr Kajwang’. He stole Sh1.9 million from one person, and I beg to table today the document regarding that.” He offered to substantiate that Kajwang’ was a thief as described by a client.

Later on October 31, 2001, Ochilo Ayacko and Shem Ochuodho suffered the Speaker’s wrath for fighting over party politics within the National Assembly.

“During the fight, which took place while the House was in recess in February, Ayacko floored Ochuodho in one of the toilets of Parliament, resulting in a swollen face, loss of memory and a swollen eye of the latter,” PANA reported. 

In a communication from the Chair, Speaker Francis ole Kaparo announced: “Hon. Ochilo Ayacko, MP for Rongo, the House has found you guilty of gross misconduct by engaging in a physical fight in the precincts of the House on Thursday February 1st, 2001.”

Further, the Speaker announced that the House had found the Rangwe MP, Dr Ochuodho “guilty of gross misconduct for provoking a physical fight in the precincts of the House”.

To both, the Speaker announced, “The House has demanded that you desist from such behaviour and that henceforth uphold the dignity, decorum and honour as expected of all Hon members.”

Six months before the Mwenje-Kajwang’ incident, Gatanga MP David Murathe lost his cool in Parliament and punched Juja counterpart Stephen Ndicho hard prompting a fight. “Ndicho and Murathe threw fists at each other as other and the honourable members tried to separate them,” the July 28th, 1999 Parliamentary record in the Hansard says.

Murathe had sought a ministerial statement on the death  of a suspect in police custody in the gruesome murder of a Juja councillor. Ndicho read mischief in the request wondering  “what Hon Murathe’s interests are” in “my constituency”.

Verbal exchange

Ndicho claimed the suspect killed the civic leader, prompting a verbal exchange between the two MPs. In the din of the exchange, Ndicho shouted, “Murathe is a suspect in the murder of Councillor wa Njuguna” inviting his wrath.

A not so happy Deputy Speaker lamented that no matter how angry and despite his hatred for his colleague, Ndicho had “no justification whatsoever to engage in fisticuffs”.

“This is such a grave matter of disorder… Surely this is hooliganism,” he exclaimed and went on to draw a parallel with touts and matatu drivers’ well-known madness on Kenyan roads. He observed that the incident would not endear MPs as role models to children. He decided against sending them out of the debating chamber right away, reasoning they could end up extending the fight there.

The two were suspended from the House for three days. A remorseful Murathe would later on write on a social forum, “I do not advocate for violent resolution of issues. Everybody loses it sometimes! After all, we are all human, particularly under extreme provocation. However, I deeply regret that incident to this day because as fate would have it, we (Ndicho and I) ended up as friends!”

Murathe would also find himself acting peacemaker when at a rally in Nyeri in 2011, he tried to restrain Maragua MP Elias Mbau from reacting to provocation by then Juja MP William Kabogo. Kabogo had made political insinuations that infuriated Mbau sparking off a near brawl.

In a personal statement in Parliament on Thursday, May 12, Mbau claimed that Kabogo had maligned his name in public the Sunday before. “It is during that function that Hon Kabogo uttered unpalatable and provocative words,” he reported.

And as if this was not bad enough, a day before (Wednesday), he continued, an enraged Kabogo had ambushed him along the Speaker’s Walkway leading to a near fight.

He detailed the events thus: “While I was in discussion with three other MPs… Hon Kabogo left the Chamber and came to where we were. Before he passed, he accosted me, leading to a near-scuffle. In the process, I was pulled aside from the scene by my colleagues, leaving him ranting and raving, spoiling for a fight.”

It took Parliamentary Orderlies to restrain the alleged attacker, who he asserted left but not before he “angrily issued a threat saying, ‘You will know me’.”

Claims of mischief

However, on May 24, Kabogo sought to clarify the issues raised. He claimed he had not abused anyone at the Nyeri meeting and that the incident in Parliament had been misrepresented. He wondered why Mbau had left out other MPs who witnessed the said incident, loosely reading mischief in this for such “would tell a different story”.

And it was not always the case that punches landed on the rightful target. In 1997, PANA reported, Otieno Kopiyo punched an assistant minister, Joseph Misoi, who had tried to calm him down during a confrontation with another MP, Mukhisa Kituyi. Kituyi had referred to Kopiyo as a conman.

And of course there have been many other incidents within Parliament. There were the chaotic scenes of June 19, 1997 when MPs reportedly fought, disrupting the budget reading by Finance Minister Musalia Mudavadi and Kanu’s feuds that saw Ole Tipis in the 1980s clobber Secretary General Robert Matano on the head with a rungu among others. More recently was the June 2013 chaos over attempts to use laptop funds to pay teachers’ salaries. It begs the question, are MPs honourable really?