For the seven years that I worked in Kenya’s Parliament as a Senior Reporter, prayer was the order of the day. Thanks to the stringent Standing Orders (rules of the august House); every session would start with a word of prayer led by the Speaker and/ or his deputy or the Temporary Speaker. “Order! Order! Members, order!” was the usual welcome by the Speaker to draw members’ attention to the business of the day.
Nation Chief Parliamentary Reporter, Emman Omari, literally held my hand and showed me the ropes on my first day and month on the new beat after I was transferred from Kisumu City where I was previously the Nation Media Group’s Bureau Chief in charge of Nyanza, Western and parts of Rift Valley.
Said Omari: “You must always identify the ministers and their assistants by their full name and ministries. You must also name each Member of Parliament (MP) who contributes and give their political party and constituency.”
The day always started with the ringing of a bell by the orderlies five minutes to commencement of business; the Speaker would then be led into the debating chamber ceremonially by the Sergeant-at-Arms, Clerk to the National Assembly and two assistant clerks.
It was a sight to behold as the Speaker marched in majestically dressed in his ceremonial gown and white wig and the Sergeant-At-Arms shouted “Mr. Speaker, sir!” as MPs, cabinet ministers and their assistants stood at attention next to their benches as a sign of respect.
Ceremonial wig and gown
The legislature met religiously three days a week; Tuesday afternoons, Wednesday mornings at 9am and afternoons and on Thursday afternoon from 2.30pm to 6.30pm prompt with a two-hour lunch break.
MPs had a register to sign at the entrance before sitting to ensure they were paid a sitting allowance in addition to their hefty salaries at the end of the month. The same would apply when they attended committee meetings as members or chairpersons.
Some sly members would make technical appearances for a few minutes and then walk out to go and have tea and socialize with their colleagues, constituents and/or friends in the well-furnished Members’ Lounge and dining room.
Some of their privileges included signing for meals snacks and drinks for themselves and their guests and had the bills deducted from their salaries at the end of the month.
It was common to experience lack of quorum in the debating chamber, forcing the Speaker to order the Sergeant-at-Arms (head of security) to ring the bell to alert the absent members to return to the debating chamber to conduct business.
No quorum
A minimum of 15 out of the 210 MPs was required to conduct business. The daily prayers were conducted religiously and it did not matter whether the Speaker, his deputy or Temporary Speaker was a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or atheist.
They all had to read the prayer in English, the official language, to start the morning session and another in the afternoon written in Kiswahili, the national language.
After the short prayer, the Speaker would have a session to address the members before allowing any member to bring a motion or seek a statement from the front bench (cabinet ministers). Thereafter, the Speaker would open the august House for Question Time for the next 30 minutes.
Question time
For journalists, that session was the most important as the news of the day usually came from the heated exchanges between the ministers and the back benchers.
One of those exchanges in the mid-1970s was between the fiery Butere MP, Martin Oyondi Shikuku and the Deputy Speaker, Jean Marie Seroney, MP for Tinderet, which led to their arrest and detention on orders by the founder of the nation, President Jomo Kenyatta over claims by Shikuku that “Kanu is dead!”
When asked to substantiate by fellow members and front benchers, the Deputy Speaker interjected saying: “There is no need to substantiate the obvious!” And with those remarks the police raided the august House after that afternoon session and hauled the two to detention as their colleagues watched in total shock and horror.
Other ugly incidents that brought the august House to its knees pitting the front bench against the back bench was when the Leader of Government Business, the Vice President, had tried to defend the President following the daylight assassination of Bahati MP and Minister for Economic Planning, Joseph Thomas (Tom) Mboya in 1969; murder of Nyandarua North MP, J.M. Kariuki in 1975 and abduction and elimination of Dr. Robert Ouko in 1990.
One of the most embarrassing statements was a claim by VP Daniel arap Moi that JM was on a trip to Zambia when the truth emerged the following day that his mutilated body was discovered in a thicket in Ngong Hills, some 30 kilometers from down town Nairobi.
Another embarrassing statement in Parliament was by Prof. George Saitoti, as VP and Leader of Government Business, who supported a controversial statement by Police Commissioner Philip Kilonzo, claiming that Dr. Ouko had committed suicide days after his wife, Christabel Ouko, had reported that he had gone missing from their Koru rural home in Kisumu County, shortly after returning from a presidential trip to the United States.
Four days later, the minister’s mutilated body was found dumped in a thicket near his Koru farm.
Darkest hour
To date no one has been brought to book in connection with the murder of JM and of Dr. Ouko. Two parliamentary committees were formed to probe the cases, but not much came out of their final reports which were thrown out on technical grounds.
The JM Parliamentary Select Committee was chaired by the then Bungoma East MP, Elijah Mwangale, who named some members of the political elite as key suspects. Said the tough-talking MP referring to a Bukusu saying thus: “Once upon a time, a hyena came across a stone. The hyena stopped by and hailed the stone, but the stone did not respond. As it passed the stone, the hyena turned around and said: ‘Even if you have not responded, you have heard,’ and with those few remarks I beg to move.”
In 2003, the then Kisumu Town East MP, Gor Sunguh chaired the Ouko Parliamentary Committee and concluded that the flamboyant Minister was abducted from his rural home in Muhoroni constituency in the wee hours of the night, driven to State Lodge Nakuru, some 118 kilometers away, where he was tortured and shot dead before the body was flown in a helicopter and dumped in a thicket at Got Alila, near his home.
For the seven years I served in Parliament, I was an MP (Member of the Press) and enjoyed some of the trappings of power like the bonafide MPs. We were entitled to receive the Order Paper (day’s programme of activities); get typed written answers to questions asked by MPs to various cabinet ministers, who answered or delegated to their assistants.
Lowest moment for me was when a lawyer sent a demand letter to me and my Managing Editor seeking a correction for a story I had penned on a Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Mwai Kibaki, as Leader of the Opposition, with Rongo MP, Ochillo Ayacko, as his deputy, during a closed-door meeting where the name of one of President Moi’s sons featured over a shady deal involving winning a tender to supply Nyanza Provincial Headquarters with four lifts to serve 10 floors.
The probe was over why he had failed to deliver after being paid in advance. The building had stalled for over a decade. The matter was later withdrawn after NMG lawyers reminded the other lawyer of parliamentary privileges enjoyed by the media.
Tour of duty
My highest moment during my tour of duty in the august House was the free snacks, drinks and meals at garden party after State opening of Parliament by the President; the other was after the reading of the annual budget statement by Finance Minister, as we interviewed the legislators, ministers, diplomats and the political and business elite to give their views.
Other memorable times were when we were sponsored for media retreats by some Non-Governmental Organisations for fully paid weekend retreats to Aberdare Country Club in Nyeri County, Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha, in Nakuru County, Lake Elementaita Lodge, and Village Inn in Kiambu County and to Sarova White Sands Hotel in Mombasa County.
One of the retreats was sponsored by International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) on coming up with a Strategic Plan for Kenya Parliamentary Journalists Association (KPJA,) on capacity-building and sensitisation on the then proposed Freedom of Information Bill. We also used the fora to come up with a constitution and structure for forming KPJA among other agendas.
Those retreats also doubled as bonding sessions for parliamentary reporters as we enjoyed the best that the hotel industry had available in terms of accommodation, meals, snacks and wonderful environment away from our daily interactions with legislators and the hoi polio (Greek for common people).
KPJA got a lot of support from ICJ’s Priscilla Nyokabi, together with other donors. On the eve of the National Constitutional of Kenya Review (NCKRC) Conference in 2003, we also had an opportunity to be flown to Kwale County to cover the various meetings between the commissioners and MPs.
Thanks to our employer, National Media Group, Njeri Rugene and I were tasked with covering the three-day meeting at Leopard Beach Hotel, in Diani, one of the most luxurious hotels I had patronized in Coast province.
The landmark forum was opened by Vice-President Michael Christopher ‘Kijana’ Wamalwa with NCKRC Chairman, Prof Yash Pal Ghai, Speaker Francis ole Kaparo and Law Society of Kenya chairman, Ahmednassir Abdullahi among others present.
Gagging the media
Saddest moment was in 1989 when Kitui North MP, Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, who doubled as Public Works Assistant Minister and powerful Kanu National Organising Secretary, moved a censure motion in Parliament against Nation Newspapers Limited (precursor of Nation Media Group).
Musyoka, who was also the Deputy Speaker, had accused the leading media house, owned by H. H. Aga Khan, of being “disrespectful to Kanu,” for being anti- government and for maligning MPs.
His controversial motion was passed by the MPs who were all life members of the ruling party, and whose chairman, President Moi, did not tolerate any divergent views. His word was law.
Immediately the motion was passed, the Speaker ordered all Nation reporters, led by Chief Parliamentary Reporter, Emman Omari, to be escorted out of the press gallery and precinct of the National Assembly and stay put for the next three months as “a lesson to others to toe the line and behave.”
Fast forward to 2003, one morning we woke up to find that some of the MPs, whom we thought were our friends, had ganged up against us and were accusing parliamentary reporters of being biased, bribed and maligning law-makers in their news and political commentaries.
Blackout for MPs
We could not take it any longer and our chairman of KPJA, Owino Opondo, who was a colleague at NMG, mobilised us all to boycott the MPs who had condemned and embarrassed us in public, unheard, for an entire fortnight “until they saw the light” and apologised profusely.
In another incident an MP from Nyandarua had called a press conference at Parliament Buildings and accused a Nation correspondent of receiving a bribe from him but not delivering the story.
I asked him to confirm that he had given a handout to the writer to give him “good coverage,” and when he did so, with authority and arrogance, I reminded him that the law was clear on graft: “He who gives is as guilty as he who receives.” The matter then ended there.
Post Election Violence in 2007/8
One of the saddest moments for MPs was on the eve of their five-year term when they had “the last supper” together in the lounge and dining hall after the President used his prerogative to dissolve the House in preparation for a general election.
Thereafter, the Speaker used his constitutional powers to declare all the elective seats vacant. The 10th Parliament had 210 elective seats in 2008 when I resigned from Nation Media Group. The seats have since been increased to a staggering 290 which excludes 59 nominated members.
Indeed, since the re-introduction of multi-party politics in the country after the repeal of Section 2(a) of the Constitution in 1992, the turnover of elected MPs has been on the rise from 50 percent to almost 80 percent in 2017.
In the 2007 General Elections, which was followed by the worst post elections violence which left over 1,000 people dead and 600,000 others displaced, only 71 of the 190 sitting MPs were re-elected in 2007 polls; 20 cabinet ministers lost their seats and a record 15 women were elected.
Looking back, the parliamentary beat was an eye opener for me as I saw the intrigues, drama and challenges of what it takes to be a leader and to be a politician.
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