NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 10 – National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi on Tuesday barred parliamentary parties – Jubilee, ODM and Wiper – from ejecting independents and lawmakers form non-parliamentary parties from House committees.
In a ruling following a request for clarity on the matter by Ugenya MP David Ochieng’ (MDG), who was facing expulsion from a committee by ODM, Muturi ruled that non-aligned members could not removed from committees pending the adoption of clear guidelines under the Standing Orders.
“The review should not weaken the grip that parliamentary parties have on allocation of slots in committees to their Members and invocation of the discharge rule as a tool for enforcing party discipline, but should stretch the democratic space in the House with a view to incorporating fairness and inculcating the expectations of Articles 1, 94, 95, 97 and 103 of our Constitution in the criteria for sharing of Committee slots,” he stated in his communication.
The Speaker subsequently invalidated the notice issued by Minority Whip Junet Mohammed (ODM) to discharge Ugenya constituency MP David Ochieng’ from the departmental Committee on Health terming it as erroneous.
“The notice given by the Minority Party Whip to discharge the Member from the Departmental Committee on Health was erroneous ab initio and therefore invalid,” he said.
Muturi noted that he will not admit any further requests to remove MPs who are either independent or members of non-parliamentary parties until a criteria is developed to entrench fairness and justice.
He said that Parliamentary parties have misunderstood Standing Order 176 and extended the application to discharge their powers to evict non-members from committee on grounds that they (parties) granted them nomination to the particular committee.
“No parliamentary party is to exercise the discharge powers of a party under Standing Orders 176 to remove a Member who is not a Member of the particular parliamentary party from any Committee of the House, even on the basis of having granted the Member the nomination to the particular Committee as that conception is based on misapplication of the Standing Orders,” he clarified.
“It is my considered guidance that the Committee on Selection in consultation with the Procedure and House Rules Committee does devise a criteria for nomination of Members to Committees that guarantees that Members who belong to Parties other than Parliamentary parties and Independent Members also get their rightful share of the six hundred and twenty two (622) slots available for sharing in Committees,” he advised.
Speaker Muturi called upon the Procedure and House Rules Committee to initiate the process of proposing amendments to the Standing Orders so as to expressly provide for the said criteria.
“The Committee may also propose the manner of ordinary re-allocations of the slots in Committees, corporately reserved for Independent Members and parties other than parliamentary parties, amongst the Independent Members and those belonging to the small parties that do not constitutes parliamentary parties,” he directed.
