Parliament to buy broadcasting unit from US

By Alex Ndegwa

Parliament will buy broadcasting equipment from the US, this month, for live transmission of proceedings.

House Speaker Kenneth Marende said Sh185 million had been set aside to equip the Parliamentary Broadcasting Unit (PBU), established under the new Standing Orders.

Mr Marende yesterday, said the Clerk of the National Assembly Patrick Gichohi would lead a delegation to the US to procure the TV and radio equipment.

He said the PBU would begin working in the next session of the Tenth Parliament, "which we anticipate will not be later than the first week of April."

He said the broadcasting unit would mirror the US system in Congress and UK’s House of Commons.

State broadcaster KBC, has been providing coverage on trial basis.

"We are also establishing a modern Press Centre for parliamentary journalists," he said.

Marende was speaking at Parliament Buildings after the swearing-in of the two joint-secretaries of the independent body of experts reviewing MPs’ terms of service.

Mr Patrick Lutta Odongo and Ms Sarah Muthoni Irungu took oath of office at the ceremony also attended by the tribunal’s chairman Justice (rtd) Akilano Akiwumi and Mr Gichohi.