The gates of the Kenya Parliament
The Kenya Parliament has indeed come a long way. Let’s take a walk down history to see where the Kenya Parliament has come from.
The 1st Parliament (1963 – 1969) operated under a dejure multi-party regime until the President banned the opposition party, the Kenya People’s Union formed by the dissenting former first Vice-President, Hon. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. The 1969 general election was also the first election since independence. The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Act 1966 came into operation in June 1966 and legalized detention without trial, which was previously prohibited under the Constitution. During this parliament, the treaty for the East African Community Act 1967 was signed, establishing the East African Community and joint services such as Railways, Ports and Habours, Airways, Court of Appeal, amongst others.
The 2nd Parliament (1969 – 1974) was priviledged to have the first woman elected into the House[1]. During this parliament, the University of Nairobi Act was passed, establishing the University of Nairobi as a public university and delinking it from the University of East Africa, tri-partite system that included Makerere University in Uganda and University of Dar-es-Salaam. The unfortunate and unresolved murders of Hon. Tom. J. Mboya and Hon. J.M. Kariuki occured during this period.
The 3rd Parliament (1974-1979) was sworn in after the second general election which saw three women elected to Parliament including Mrs. Grace Onyango who was now serving her second term. The 3rd Parliament was also the time the founding father and 1st President of the country, His Excellency President Jomo Kenyatta passed on in August 1978. He was succeeded by Hon. Daniel Arap Moi who was his vice-president. The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) (No 2) Act 1975 was introduced in 1975, to empower the President to reprieve anybody who had committed an election offence, which disqualified him, under the Election Offences Act, from standing to be elected in the subsequent elections. The amendment was specifically aimed at empowering the President to reprieve the late Paul Ngei who had been convicted of committing an election offence. Ngei was duly pardoned in 1975 and stood in the subsequent bye-election in Kangundo and won.
ODM leadership in the House
The 4th Parliament (1979 – 1983) set a landmark in the political history of the country by amending the constitution to enact the one party dejure status. This occured against the backdrop of the attempted coup. It also saw the first election of Kenyans of European and Asian origin into the House.
The 5th Parliament (1983 – 1988) saw a reduction in elected female representatives. Significant electoral events happened during this parliament: The infamous KANU nominations in 1986 and the Queue Voting system during the 1988 General Elections that was riddled with irregularities apart from being an irregularity in itself.
The 6th Parliament (1988 – 1992) saw an increase in the number of parliamentary seats to 188 elected members, 12 nominated members and 2 ex-officio members totaling to 202 members. This was the first increase since 1966 to accommodate the senators during the transition from bicameral to a unicameral National Assembly. The 1992 elections at the end of the life of the 6th Parliament were the first multi-party elections and ushered in the second multi-party parliament since independence. The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Act 1992 made provisions on how to elect the President during a General Election. A winner in the first round was required to receive “…a greater number of valid votes cast in the Presidential election than any other candidates for President and also in addition receive a minimum of 25% of the valid votes cast in at least 5 of the 8 Provinces.” If there was no such a winner, a run-off was required. During the second round, only the top two could run and, a simple majority of votes was required to decide the winner. The Hon. Dr. Robert J. Ouko was murdered in 1990 and upto date, this case has never been resolved.
View of the House from the right of the Speaker's throne
The 7th Parliament (1993 – 1997) had 7 political parties represented in the House namely KANU (ruling party), FORD-Kenya (official opposition party), FORD-Asili, Democratic Party of Kenya (DP), Kenya National Congress (KNC), Party of Independent Candidates of Kenya (PICK) and the National Democratic Party (NDP)[2]. The 7th Parliament was characterized by numerous defections and had the highest number of by-elections ever recorded (14)[3]. As a result, the official opposition party changed form FORD-Kenya to FORD-Asili. Other key milestones of the 7th Parliament include the review of the Standing Orders whereby four new standing orders were created, ten were modified and one was deleted. The pro-reform members of the opposition made it difficult for the Minister of Finance to read the Budget speech as they waved placards reading “No Reforms, No elections” and “No Reforms, No Budget” to press for reforms that would make the electoral field level.
The clamour for reforms resulted in The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Act 1997 coming into force to put into effect the Inter- Party Political Parties Group (IPPG) discussions, which provided for certain political and legal reforms. These changes allowed other political players on the political scenes to participate in making certain appointments. Section 33 of the Constitution was amended to allow the parliamentary parties to nominate, in proportion to their popular support, the 12 nominated members of Parliament and also councillors in Local authorities. The amendment also increased the number of Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) Commissioners from 4 to 21.
[1] Mrs. Grace Onyango had previously been elected as the first female Mayor in East Africa in 1965 when she was elected the Mayor of Kisumu.
[2] President Moi was the Chairman of KANU. FORD-Kenya was headed by the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and later by the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa following Jaramogi’s death. FORD-Asili was headed by Hon. Kenneth Matiba, DP by Hon. Mwai Kibaki, KNC by Hon. Gerald Ndwiga, PICK by Hon. Harun Mwau and NDP by Hon. Raila Odinga. Hon. Raila unsuccessfully tried to become Chairman of FORD-Kenya but failed and defected to NDP. He resigned from his parliamentary seat in accordance with the law and later won the by-election to retain it.
[3] Some of the by-elections were occasioned by death.
