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Plain textMbabazi: MPs Should Not Question M7’s Judgment
Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi has said he wants the Parliamentary Rules of Procedure to make it mandatory for MPs to ask the Leader of Government Business in Parliament questions every week as a form of public accountability in governance.
Mbabazi said there is no such provision in the current Rules that are undergoing amendment.
He said under the present arrangement MPs ask questions only when Ministers are presenting their ministerial statements, or craft their own ways of getting answers from the Executive.
The Prime Minister was meeting members of the Implementation Committee of the Kenya National Assembly at his office on Tuesday.
The four-man delegation was on a four-day visit into the country to find out what they could benchmark into their new Constitution.
The Minister of Information and National Guidance Mary Karooro Okurut attended the meeting. The Kenyan delegation had MPs Gitobu Imanyara (team leader), Benjamin Langat and Peter Njuguna Gitau, accompanied by their Committee Clerk, Ahmad Kadhi.
“We have strengthened our Parliament but it is going overboard by even passing resolutions against commissions set up by the President,” Mbabazi noted.
He said, however, he had no problem with that because some of the resolutions could be declared unconstitutional.
He said he would propose that the requirement for MPs to ask questions of interest be entrenched in the new Rules. He noted that through this the public would know what the government is doing on a weekly basis.
In Kenya such questions are asked every Wednesday, a day before Vice President/Leader of Government Business Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka briefs Parliament on the following week’s business.
Mbabazi hailed Kenya as a second home to Ugandans when they had political turmoil at home, saying they were worried when the situation deteriorated during the last elections. He said he was happy that there was general consensus on governance there.
Team leader Imanyara said his country was amending the Constitution to provide for complete separation of powers.
Among other changes the Executive will no longer sit in the National Assembly and the position of Prime Minister will be abolished after elections this year.
He said the Senate system that had been abolished by then President Jomo Kenyatta would be re-introduced.
Under the changes, he said, the current provincial administration would be replaced by county administration headed by a governor with a cabinet and executive power.
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Updated on 2013-05-09 09:25 |
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