As the curtain falls on the 12th Parliament of Kenya, it will be remembered as a utilitarian and transactional Parliament centered on itself. It was a House that did not serve the interests of the people, but the partisan political interests of both Houses, driven by self-centeredness.

The nation’s political archives and Hansard will tell of an entity that was fashioned for democracy, but degenerated into a tool in the hands of a political upper class and its brokers. Parliament has fought various battles for President Uhuru Kenyatta, his deputy William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga.

But the story of the 12th Parliament will mostly bring out the portrait of President Uhuru as a shrewd and skilled political craftsman, and of Raila as a mercurial tactician who used Parliament to maintain its political relevance after the 2017 election debacle. Likewise, Ruto will be remembered as a shrewd individual, who fled with a section of parliament and protected himself behind him, in the face of a hostile president and that of the main opponent, Raila; both seeking to annihilate him politically.

The profile of the outgoing Parliament is easily reflected in the words of ODM’s Minority Whip, Junet Mohamed, on the occasion of the removal of Garissa Town MP, Aden Duale, as Majority Leader in the National Assembly, at the behest of President Uhuru. “As for Duale, when you see us following Baba like cows, it’s because we fear the consequences like the ones you are facing today,” he said.

Mohamed was contributing to the House leadership change motion in June 2020, when Kipipiri MP Amos Kimunya replaced Duale, who opposed the President, due to his loyalty to the Vice President. The MP for Suna East has again pledged to the ODM leader. He proclaimed that he would never want to end up the same way as Duale. Duale fell into a purge that also saw the removal of several other Jubilee lawmakers from House committee leaderships. Some of the most notable were Kimani Ichung’wa (Kikuyu, National Assembly), Ndindi Nyoro (Kiharu, National Assembly) Kithure Kindiki (Tharaka-Nithi, Senate), Kipchumba Murkomen (Elgeyo-Markwet, Senate) and Susan Kihika (Nakuru County , Senate).

Throughout the life of the 12th Parliament, Uhuru was shrewd and ruthless in his dealings with the Parliament. He is the only leader who effectively crippled one of the three branches of government and turned it into an effective political instrument in his hands. In total rupture with his three predecessors, he personally chased Parliament from the State House. It is the highest seat of power in the country.

When MPs are summoned here, they come not to deliberate, but humiliated enough to yield to legislative and policy instructions from the executive. They check in, have tea and snacks, and wait for the address of the day, and whatever else there might be. They then leave and do as they are told. Woe to those who stray from the script.

They had to learn the hard way. You do not meet President Uhuru and continue to have slack when you are a legislator. You will be removed from the lucrative perks and sparkling trappings of good life and prestige that come with leadership positions in Parliament. But you could also find yourself before the Criminal Investigations Branch and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, facing both legitimate and fabricated charges of misusing public funds under your watch. Only the daredevils and the innocent resisted the pressure from State House.

Most effective whip

In the case of county governors, Parliament has been a most effective whip in getting them to toe the straight and narrow line. While the Office of the Auditor General and that of the Comptroller of the Budget have had serious reservations about financial ownership in the counties, few governors have had serious challenges as a result. Even those who had trouble with county parliaments were saved by the Senate, provided they were on the right side of the executive.

The Senate removed Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu Baba Yao and his Nairobi counterpart Gideon Mbuvi Sonko, who had fallen out with State House. On the other hand, a motion to remove Kirinyaga Governor Ann Waiguru failed twice because she was on the right side.

The method of managing the impeachment process also varied, depending on whether the culprit was seen as pro-system or on the wrong side of the executive. A governor the state wants to save has been subjected to select committees that have returned favorable reports to the House, while those seen as bad boys have been maimed by the entire House.

When Waiguru was on the good books, his case was handled by a committee whose report was extremely suspicious. To boot, she visited the ODM leader’s private offices in Upper Hill, where she underwent the proverbial one-shot cleanup, mwosho mmoja tu! A smiling and laughing Raila administered him a Covid-19 anti-virus disinfectant, edifying the joke that his office had become the place to clean up economic crimes against the republic.

Waiguru seemed quite safe afterwards until the day she defected to Ruto’s camp. Then the same allegations of corruption in Kirinyaga County were resurrected, with Parliament lined up, in addition to EACC and DCI, to deal with it.

The parliamentary route has proven elusive, however, as Ruto has his own wing and follows there. In January 2020, pro-Ruto MPs, numbering 150, rallied in Naivasha, in a symbolic show of force, and to demonstrate that they were ready to face any adverse motion in parliament against their man.

Ruto found relief behind the 150. In bad times, they dared his opponents to dare to table a motion for impeachment against him in parliament. The process of impeachment of a vice president is much more complex than that of a governor. In the case of the DP, a member of the National Assembly supported by one-third of the assembly (say 96 members) must propose a motion of impeachment. At least two-thirds of the assembly, or 194 members, must support the motion , which then goes to the Senate, and must also have two-thirds support to impeach the DP. But first, a committee of 11 will investigate the case and even invite the DP to defend themselves.

Remove a DP

The Committee of 11 can commute the case at this stage, if they are not satisfied with the demands of the impeachment motion. Under Articles 150 and 145 of the Constitution, therefore, it is not easy to impeach a DP who enjoys the kind of following that Ruto had in the 12th Parliament.

Aware of these realities, Ruto’s opponents loudly called for him to step down, but he dug in, knowing that their bark is sharper than their bite, even against the backdrop of President Uhuru and Raila merging a party. of the ruling party with the opposition. under an informal pact that resided in their March 2018 handshake.

Furthermore, the 12th legislature, like the 11th before it, did not discuss the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation report. But he did even worse by watering down the report, whose failure to be implemented remains key to many public controversies in the country today.

The report was delivered to the President in May 2013. President Uhuru in turn delivered it to Parliament in his first State of the Nation Address to the Joint Houses of Parliament. The president’s office has since been accused of frustrating efforts to debate and implement the report.

Parliament was supposed to debate the report and have it implemented within six months of the date of the report. It didn’t happen, apparently because the president’s office found it sensitive, appointing people who shouldn’t be named. Moreover, the summaries of the report which were to be made public within the same six-month period were never published.

The report cannot be found in Kenya, despite the fact that its delivery to the President and submission to Parliament has made it a public document. These documents must be accessible without any hindrance to the public. Parliament did not even ensure that Kenyans had access to the report. Meanwhile, accusations and counter-accusations on the issues contained in the report abound in the public arena.

Big failure

The handling of the TJRC report is a big fail from a Parliament that was supposed to have operated in the most democratized political and legal environment in Kenya. Previous parliaments, before 2010, operated in draconian environments, but found it possible to assert themselves.

The Third Parliament (1974-1979) remains the most principled and assertive House in the country, due to the candor and patriotism with which it approached national issues.

It was the Parliament in which leaders like JM Kariuki (Nyandarua North), Chief Gitonga (Kitui East), Elijah Mwangale (Bungoma East), Martin Shikuku (Butere), Mark Mwithaga (Nakuru Town), Mwangi Karungaru (Embakasi), Charles Rubia (Starehe), George Anyona (Kitutu East), Chelagat Mutai (Eldoret North), Jean Marie Seroney (Tindret) and Yunis Ali (Langata), among others, were a key opposition under one-party rule.

Even ministers like Masinde Muliro and Peter Kibisu found it possible to stand up to the government in place.

Placed on the scales of representation of the people, oversight and even legislation, Kenya’s 12th Parliament will receive a severe judgment in the court of history. It will be remembered as a hugely divided partisan institution that failed to live up to the creed of conscientious service. It was huge on noise, sycophancy and self-serving politics.

It failed to enact gender laws, passed unconstitutional laws and imposed a debilitating cost of living on the country. Worst of all, he played the sycophant of the executive, in a country where the doctrine of separation of powers and decision by the principle of checks and balances is a constitutional imperative.

As the sun sets on Kenya’s 12th Parliament, those in prayer may be praying for another kind of MP to return to the 13th Parliament later this year. It will be a member who will recognize that she is not a cow, regardless of her loyalty to her party leader or to the president.

He will be a deputy who will understand that there is a higher loyalty, that is to say loyalty to the country and to God. The 12th Parliament failed in this regard.