Members of Parliament are now seeking to introduce a law that could allow them to miss as many House sessions as possible without being punished.
The Bill sponsored by Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo is aimed at amending article 103 of the Constitution, which states that an MP shall lose his or her seat upon missing eight meetings without permission in writing from the Speaker.
If the Bill is passed into law, it will introduce the aspect of eight consecutive sittings, meaning that a Legislator will only lose their seats if one misses eight consecutive meetings.
“The bill seeks to amend Article 103 of the Constitution so as to prevent the office of a Member of Parliament from becoming vacant for failure to attend eight sittings of the relevant House during any session of Parliament. The bill proposes to introduce the aspect of eight consecutive sittings meaning that a member who is absent for eight sequential sittings loses his/her seat," reads the bill in part.
The bill further gives legislators the leeway of missing meetings without seeking permission from the Speaker as is the case, but only needs to “notify the speaker".
This comes barely a day after the Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi highlighted that there had been lack of quorum in the house, leading to premature adjournments and a backlog of bills.
Members of the Assembly have, however, argued in recent past that they were not only legislators, but also representatives of their constituencies and that they held different leadership roles in house committees and should not be taken to mean that they were idle.
"This is in recognition of the fact that the role of the National Assembly and the Senate includes representation, legislation and oversight. Further that these roles can be discharged either in the chamber, in committees or anywhere else in or out of the country," states Mr Gumbo in his bill.
This comes as the latest contentious move by the MPs, following a recent one where they sought to debate on how hefty their retirement packages should look like, with the inclusion of tax free monthly stipends of Sh100,000 and psychiatric services.
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