MOMBASA, Kenya, May 18 – The supremacy wars between the National Assembly and the Senate will not fade away any time soon, Clerk of the National Assembly Michael Sialai has said.
While reacting to the recent situation where both Houses have been handling separate committee inquiries regarding the same matter, Sialai has said that both Houses have the powers to summon but cautioned that the two should not overstep their mandate.
“The tensions between the two Houses are a healthy affair which often brings out the best of the two. Such cases are however not unique,” Sialai said during a retreat in Mombasa with Parliamentary Journalists Association members.
One such case is where parliamentarians are probing the controversial issue of the Ruaraka land saga where Ruaraka High School and Drive Inn Primary School risk being evicted.
National Assembly Lands Committee chaired by Rachael Nyamai has accused the Senate County Public Accounts and Investments Committee of overstepping its oversight mandate.
The Nyamai-led committee holds that the two schools fall under their oversight mandate because are under national government function as provided in the Constitution.
The committee wants Senate committees to stick to devolution functions in discharging their oversight duties.
However, the Senate watchdog committee chaired by Moses Kajwang’ has maintained that it was working within its mandates on grounds that the Ruaraka land issue was of high national importance.
The committee also argues that it is allowed to conduct parallel inquiries under the current bicameral system of parliament.
“Both Houses have powers to summon any person but it narrows down to the different and specified mandates they discharge.
We will always see both Houses do parallel probes but the question we should ask is whether the matter falls within their mandates,” Sialai said.
He criticized Senate for encroaching on National Assembly’s crucial role of introducing and debating Bills that have financial implications to the country.
