- Senators have deferred their normal House business by two weeks to attend the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi.
- The lawmakers were scheduled to resume business Tuesday after three weeks of recess but altered their calendar during the special sitting held last week to extend the break.
Image: KEITH MUSEKE
Senators have deferred their normal House business by two weeks to attend the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi.
The lawmakers were scheduled to resume business Tuesday after three weeks of recess but altered their calendar during the special sitting held last week to extend the break.
The latest development will now see the House resume its regular sessions on September 19, 2023.
The senators will stage their operations in Nairobi before trooping to Turkana for the third Senate Mashinani starting September 25.
The lawmakers will hold their plenary and committee meetings in the assembly precincts of the Turkana County Assembly.
Previous Senate Mashinani were held in Uasin Gishu in 2018 and Kitui in 2019.
Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot said senators need time to attend the conference being held in Nairobi as well as other duties about their position.
The Kericho senators moved the motion for the alteration of the Senate calendar. The motion was unanimously endorsed by the members.
He said when the House adjourned for recess last month, they were to proceed on a three-week recess but the schedule was interfered with by the one-week Devolution conference.
Further, another week was spent back in Parliament for special sittings to adopt a motion establishing the national dialogue team as well as the approval of the Climate Change (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
Thereafter, the senators will also be expected to be part of the ongoing climate conference where they will have sessions to make presentations.
“In short, that is why we have requested to move our recess period by a further two weeks so that we can attend to all those duties,” Cheruiyot said.
He defended the move, saying it was not an abdication of duty but to create time to retreat to the village to be with their constituents for at least a week.
“One of the hardest things as a politician in this country is to be re-elected as a senator. This is because when you go to a public forum, an MCA will point to the ECDE classroom that he has constructed, MP will point at the administration block.”
“The governor will say he or she has done the road, the President has promised a big dam and the county woman representatives will have cheques for bursaries,” he said.
“Then they will say, “let us welcome our ‘big man’ that we elected to go to Nairobi called the senator. What do you have for us?” It is only out of our presence in the village solving little problems sometimes when we have time during recess, that we can at least have relevance in this country,” he added.
Speaker Amason Kingi said the role of parliamentarians in the summit, taking place between September 4 and 6, 2023 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, cannot be overstated.
He said parliamentarians play crucial legislative, oversight and budget-making and approval roles, which are essential in policy development and implementation and ensure government accountability and effectiveness.
He held that Parliaments also link vital knowledge with constituents, facilitating need-based and effective climate action.
“At the international level, legislators can work with their counterparts to build synergies and coordinated approaches at the negotiation stage for shared regional interests,” Kingi said.
Kingi said a Parliamentary dialogue has been slated in the programme on September 4, 2023, and a full-day dialogue on September 6, 2023, at the National Assembly Chamber.
“The two dialogues will bring together Parliamentarians from across Africa to deliberate on the role of legislatures in achieving the outcomes of the Summit,” he said.
“The dialogue will culminate in a Communiqué which will serve as a landmark document outlining the commitments of African legislatures to actionable climate governance,” he added.