Senate speaker orders police to withdraw from Parliament

Proceedings at the Senate special sitting on Wednesday were interrupted after senators demanded that the session be adjourned due to the heavy presence of police outside Parliament buildings in Nairobi.

CORD Senators led by Senate Minority Leader Moses Wetangula and Kakamega Senator Bonny Khalwale demanded the suspension of the special sitting until the anti-riot police are withdrawn, saying that the Senate has no wrangles or chaos.

“Mr Speaker clarify this matter… it is like we were denied access to this House… Have we lost independence as a Senate or we have been held captive by the executive?” posed Khalwale.

While terming the move as inappropriate, the Senators also demanded that an investigation into the orders to have the police outside Parliament precincts be carried out and a report brought back to the House.

In response, Ethuro condemned the presence of anti-riot police and ordered them to withdraw, saying he had already protested their presence to Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery, but insisted that the session must go on as they had business to transact.

“It is clear we don’t need any police here… but the police are not within Parliamentary precints… I want to direct the police again that we do not need them but we will not adjourn we have business to transact,” said the speaker.

Senators Wetangula and Orengo also protested against the move by the Senate to bar members of the public and the media from accessing the public gallery.

The Senate special sitting was called to debate the contentious amendments to the election laws.

Senate could either pass the amendments or strike down the changes passed by the National Assembly, which allowed the IEBC to use the manual system of voting and transmission of results if the electronic system fails.

Senate Speaker Ekwe Ethuro called the Wednesday’s special sitting a week after the chaotic session in the National Assembly where CORD MPs walked out as their Jubilee colleagues passed the amendments.

Last week, National Assembly members allied to the ruling Jubilee faction amended the electoral laws effectively re-introducing the manual voter identification and transmission of election results in cases where the electronic system fails.

Upon voting in favour of the amendments, the Jubilee legislators, led by Majority Leader Aden Duale, accused the opposition of asking for the impossible by demanding that the election be conducted electronically.

Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro, convened the special sitting saying that the decision was informed by a request by the Senate Majority Leader, Kithure Kindiki, and endorsed by 15 other senators.

The senators are expected to discuss 11 other matters apart from the election laws during the session.