Members of Parliament (MPs) have stopped the implementation of recommendations of the presidential working party on education reforms.
The National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula said that it was unlawful for recommendations to be implemented before passing through Parliament.
He added that the work of the MPs is to legislate, meaning the recommendations should be debated in Parliament before they can be passed for implementation.
"I repeat nobody; no minister of government can purport to make law or do things that appear to be in the (sic) that they have made law, because they have no capacity to make any law," he said.
The matter was brought before Parliament by Emuhaya MP Omboko Milemba, who revealed that the recommendations had caused a rift among stakeholders in the education sector including the Ministry of Education, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and unions.
Milemba, who is the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) chairman, added that such recommendations should be suspended until they pass through Parliament.
"The recommendations that the Ministry of Education reveals the grades for pre-service teachers jeopardize TSC's mandate as provided under Article 237 (3) of the Constitution," he stated.
"The working party also recommended that the Ministry establishes a comprehensive school system where all levels of learning are managed as one institution contrary to the Constitution. The working party further recommends that the Ministry recruits staff for special needs in institutions, which will interfere with TSC's mandate."
Milemba's statement was supported by other MPs who confirmed that the recommendations should be presented in parliament as a bill.
"The recommendations made by the Working party remain recommendations until they are reduced to a bill and brought to this House or it is reduced into a regulation which is brought to this House and committed to a committee," Samuel Chepkonga, Ainabkoi MP said.
While giving his views on the matter National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung'wah said that he will consult with the Education Ministry and report back to Parliament.
"I have nothing much to add because the law is the law. Nobody including Cabinet Secretaries have the power to make law even a presidential working party. The best they can do is to make recommendations which, if adopted, those that touch on statutes, then it must begin from this House," he stated.
