‘Parliament is dead,’ Senate Majority Leader Murkomen says

Leader of Majority in the Senate and Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen now says that the Kenyan parliament is dead.

Murkomen was responding to an article by the Standard Newspaper that labelled Kenyan politicians as traitors for abandoning the electorate during the coronavirus pandemic.

The article noted that Kenyan politicians- some of the highest paid in the world- were yet to take a pay cut or push motions to protect Kenyans against the effects of the global pandemic.

“There has been a lack of leadership from the MPs since the Coronavirus outbreak. Not a single initiative to cushion Kenyans; no slashing of their hefty salaries as the disease wipes out jobs and businesses. Kenyans are truly on their own,” the article read.

In a retort on Twitter, Murkomen said parliament was dead and accused the opposition of causing a stampede by trying to be the government itself.

“For the 1st time Standard has boldly called out my colleague Sen. Moi&his bro.I hope they were quoted in the story. I can however confirm that Parliament is DEAD. It’s an extension of Executive&the opposition is causing stampede trying to be more government than government itself,” Murkomen Tweeted

In subsequent follow-up updates, Murkomen noted that parliament was being used to safeguard the interests of the executive which was now joined at the hip with the opposition.

He gave an example of the Nairobi county take-over by the National Government and the formation of a Senate COVID-19 commitee which he claimed had been signed and formed against the stipulations of the constitution.

“Every time I raised issues of public interest like Money to counties,Take over of NBI County,Laws being passed&signed against the Constitution, formation of Senate COVID19 Committee etc the media have always reduced my efforts 2 TangaTanga/Rutoman/anti-Uhuru bullshit. BE OBJECTIVE,” he added.

At the same time, he noted that he previously moved a motion in the senate aimed at establishing a Sakaja-chaired COVID19 Emergency Committee to put together policy and legislative proposals to deal with this pandemic.

The Senate is expected to meet on Tuesday to approve its recommendations.