I am following the Supreme Court ruling on the dispute between the Senate and the National Assembly. Justices Smokin Wanjala, Philip Tunoi, Willy Mutunga and Kalpana Rawal have read the majority ruling granting the Senate its prayers, where they affirmed the right of the Senate to participate in the Division of Revenue bill. That division of revenue bill is not the same thing as a money bill, where the National Assembly has sole jurisdiction. The Supreme Court also ruled that every bill that is introduced in the National Assembly must be forwarded to the Senate for the speaker of the senate to determine whether it concerns the counties, if not give okay for the National Assembly to discuss it without the input of the senate. The Supreme Court affirmed the centrality of devolution of powers in the constitution. Njoki Ndungu on her part differed with virtually every ruling made by the majority ruling. She is still reading her ruling as I write this. She has said that the dispute between the National Assembly and the Senate is political and the Supreme Court should not be dragged into political disputes, she has described Kenya as a unitary country in which counties do not enjoy certain privileges as in federal systems. She has a different definition of what constitutes a money bill, different to that given by Philip Tunoi. I think the Supreme Court may yet redeem itself after suffering a lot of bashing from many quarters including the Gladys Boss Sholei saga.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 10:09:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015