By SAMUEL KISIKA @kisikasam and WILLIAM MWANGI @memwarwilliams
NASA and Jubilee MPs have differed sharply over Western envoys' Monday objection to any proposed changes to election laws or reforms ahead of the October 2016 fresh presidential poll.
 |
| A woman casts her vote at the Moi avenue primary school on August 8, 2017. /HEZRON NJOROGE |
Three ODM lawmakers backed the diplomats' opposition to the proposed electoral amendments undergoing public participation, while 10 Mt Kenya Jubilee Party MPs told off the envoys arguing that Kenya is in an "extraordinary circumstance" that no western country has experienced.
"They will be the first to admit that none of their countries has ever had a presidential election nullified - meaning that those international best practices - may have had no occasion to be shaped in this kind of constitutional and legal moment in Kenya," Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro said.
The Jubilee MPs led by Nyeri Town MP Wambugu Ngunjiri also insisted that Kenya should be left alone to "forge our own path, use our Constitution and our political understanding" despite noting political lessons from other nations.
"We doubt they (envoys) have a measure of the best practice they would want us to emulate from them on this front. We can only set that precedence of the best practices for other democracies," they said.
"We are representatives of the people who elected us and those people need us to pass laws that will work for their own good, so we call on the diplomatic community to let us walk through the journey without interference," Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie said.
Kirinyaga woman representive Purity Wangui said the envoys are meddling in local politics.
She defended the changes saying they will not affect IEBC's preparedness for the repeat election scheduled for October 26.
The leaders further threatened sanctions, including travel bans, on political leaders taking hardline positions that may affect the elections.
"We are not going to be cowed from pushing for the electoral amendment because this helps shape the country in a certain way and direction," she added.
JUBILEE 'INSTITUTIONALISING ELECTION THEFT'
ODM legislators Caleb Luyai (Saboti) and Martin Owino (Ndhiwa) led by the party's Political Affairs director Opiyo Wandayi accused Jubilee of attempting to "institutionalise election theft" in the country through their proposed amendments being tackled by a joint Select Committee of National Assembly and Senate.
The committee co-chaired by MPs William Cheptumo (Baring North) and Fatuma Dullo (Isiolo Senator) began to receive memoranda from the public yesterday on the amendments.
Wandayi dismissed the committee and maintained that all House activities transacted since Parliament reopened last month are unconstitutional because House Business Committees of both National Assembly and Senate are not fully constituted due to the absence of NASA members.
"What is happening in the joint Select Committee cannot be business of the two Houses of the republic of Kenya. This dubious committee has gone out seeking views from the public and we appeal to them to ignore because that is a Jubilee committee," he said.
Wandayi, also the Ugunja MP, said the report from the committee to be tabled in both Houses will be illegal and NASA lawmakers will reject it and threatened to challenge the laws in court once passed using Jubilee's tyranny of numbers and assented to by the President.
"We refused to participate or appear before the committee to give our views or criticize it because this will be giving it the legitimacy it does not have. The hearings is a waste of public money and abuse of office,"
Wandayi said Jubilee is afraid of IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati on grounds he may decline to announce President Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner in the upcoming poll hence an attempt to push for empowering the commission's vice chair Consolata Nkatha to have powers like the chairman.
"Jubilee wants to use friendly commissioners like the IEBC vice chair to declare Uhuru as the winner come rain come sunshine," he said.
No comments: