Speaking after holding its Parliamentary Group meeting chaired by CORD Principals Raila Odinga and Moses Wetangula, the Opposition coalition asked its members to quit the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee/XINHUA-File
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 7 – The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) has directed its Members of Parliament to withdraw from participating in two parliamentary processes bidding to unlock the stalemate over the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
Speaking after holding its Parliamentary Group meeting chaired by CORD Principals Raila Odinga and Moses Wetangula, the Opposition coalition asked its members to quit the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.
CORD MPs who were part of 150 MPs serving in a bi-partisan parliamentary initiative on the IEBC were also directed to withdraw until they receive further directions.
The Standing Orders require a party through its whip to write to the respective House Speakers indicating that they would like to withdraw members from any respective committee.
The move by CORD to withdraw its members from the ongoing efforts will be a big blow to the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee and its plans to begin countrywide public hearings on how to reform the IEBC for the next four weeks from Friday June 10, 2016.
The Samuel Chepkonga (Ainabkoi)-led team wants to get views of members of the public on what should be done to the IEBC.
CORD claims the two groups have no blessing from both the Jubilee and Opposition and therefore their efforts are an exercise in futility.
This comes in spite of the decision by the committee to grant CORD and Jubilee coalition leaders and religious groups priority when they start their hearings.
During a stormy meeting of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee and that on the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee on Tuesday, MPs who had been placed in six focus groups assigned to tour various parts of the country threatened to boycott the assignment with some saying that they would not be received well if their political parties ‘did not give them their blessing’.
“When the environment is so tensed up like that and we are collecting views, we think that topic of contestation will be endangering the lives of our MPs,” Fatuma Ali (Wajir County Woman Rep) said.
“We should talk to the political leadership first, they agree that we can proceed. let us use it to reduce the tension in the country,” added Manson Nyamweya (South Mugirango).
The meeting reached consensus that they needed to meet with the respective leadership given the volatile nature in the country and to give the process credibility.
“This processes do not happen in a vacuum, it would be very naive to proceed with this exercise and pretend that the politics out there have no impact on this processes,” Ababu Namwamba (Budalang’i).
“We need to consult leadership, so let’s give opportunity to leadership to be consulted; to appear before this Committee to present their views before we go out,” Chepkonga stated as the MPs agreed to hold another meeting on Thursday to deliberate on other issues.
The CORD Parliamentary Group insists that the best way out of the IEBC stalemate is dialogue between the country’s key political players.
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