CORD HAD PLANNED TO DISRUPT PARLIAMENT PROCEEDINGS OPPOSITION Cord held several meetings from last weekend to plan how to disrupt debate on the Security Laws (Amendment) Bill 2014 that Speaker Justin Muturi, with the help of Jubilee MPs, forced through Parliament yesterday. The Security Laws (Amendment) Act 2014 is now the law of the land. It was passed by acclamation at 6.15pm. While they announced in public that they would hold street protests, Cord changed tack at the last minute and deployed all its troops to the floor of the House early, where they raised countless points of order, shouted and even tried to grab a Mace that was heavily guarded by a larger deployment of orderlies than usual. Tension was palpable as Parliament and its immediate neighborhood were placed in lockdown, with a heavy deployment of armed anti-riot police. Inside the precincts of Parliament and in the House itself, blows were exchanged several times. It was a House of Dishonour all day, as Cord MPs unsuccessfully pulled every stop to ensure that the Bill, widely denounced as draconian, did not go through. After several disruptions, Muturi forced through the proposals as Senators Hon. Senator Moses Masika Wetangula, Hon James Orengo, Johnstone Muthama, Janet Ongera and Judith Sijeny were attacked by Jubilee MPs. The Jubilee MPs who tore the Cord MPs’ clothes as they forced them out of the Speakers Gallery, where they had roosted to cheer on their disruptive colleagues on the floor of the House. On Monday Cord held a strategy meeting at Ufungamano House, iconic venue of many multiparty initiatives of the 1980s and ’90s, where they explored several options, including mass action and disruptions in Parliament. It was resolved on Wednesday that we employ the tactics the opposition used against Kanu during the Seventh and Ninth Parliament in the ’90s, where, even with their fewer numbers, they forced Kanu to the negotiating table. A lot of coaching was done and commitments obtained that MPs would be in the House, said a senior Cord leader. The Bill was finally passed with all the amendments brought by the committees on National Security, Justice and Legal Affairs amidst shouting and heckling punctuated by flying objects thrown by the opposition side in a desperate bid to stop consideration of the amendments.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 05:48:39 +0000
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