Nairobi — Garissa Town MP-elect Aden Duale has decried what he described on Thursday as an unjustified delay by President Uhuru Kenyatta to gazette the date of the first sitting of the 13th Parliament more than three weeks after the country went into polls.
Duale took to his official Twitter account arguing that further delays in the gazettement could be a recipe for constitutional crises.
The Garissa Town MP, one of the top lieutenants of President-Elect William Ruto, argued that there are only seven days left for the Head of State to gazette the date of the first sitting of Parliament, as stipulated in the Constitution.
"It is worth noting that it is at the first sitting of the House that the Members-Elect of Parliament are sworn-in, and the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House is undertaken," he said.
"What is therefore Cooking? Is there a deliberate move to delay or negate the swearing-in of Members-Elect? Is there an attempt to create a constitutional crisis by ensuring that Parliament is not in place?" he posed.
Article 126(2) of the Constitution provides that "whenever a new House is elected, the President, by notice in the Gazette, shall appoint the place and date for the first sitting of the new House, which shall be not more than thirty days after the election."
Duale made a reference to the 11th Parliament where he said, the late President Mwai Kibaki gazetted the date of the first sitting of the 11th Parliament within two weeks after the election of President Kenyatta to the country's top seat.
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He went forward to say that in 2017, President Kenyatta gazetted the first sitting of Parliament on time, noting that by the end of August, National Assembly members had been sworn in.
The legislator said that this is the first time the country has crossed over September without a Parliament.
"What is even worrying is that no white smoke has been seen to indicate when Parliament shall first meet to pave way for swearing-in of the Members," he added.
Duale further argued that the term of the MPs who served in the 12th Parliament ended on the midnight of August 9, while emphasizing on the essence of new Members-Elect to be sworn in as stipulated by Article 74 of the Constitution so as to perform the functions of Parliament.
"Worse still is that the 7 days period which is remaining for the President to Gazette the first sitting of Parliament, is even shorter noting Parliament ordinarily sits ONLY on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays," he said.
Duale insisted that out that technically speaking, there are only 3 days left for Parliament to hold its first sitting- next week Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
He called on President Kenyatta to gazette the date as soon as possible to allow Parliament to execute its constitutional mandate.
"To this end, I urge the H.E. President to exercise his constitutional duty as required under Article 126(2) of the Constitution and pave way for a new Parliament as elected by the people of Kenya. He owes this to the People of Kenya. It is TIME TO MOVE ON," he said.
