National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale has dismissed allegations that Parliament is being arm-twisted by the Executive.
Duale said the notion that the Executive is bulldozing Parliament is a fallacy which should be disregarded in totality.
“Kenya is a parliamentary democracy and that is in the Constitution. In parliamentary democracies parties matter and in Kenya we are using a presidential system of government where there exist the Majority and Minority side.
“The Majority that has formed a government will always aspire to support the president and his deputy who are in the Executive,” said Duale.
The independence of Parliament came into the spotlight when four Jubilee lawmakers have stripped their chairmanship positions of parliamentary committees after they had vied against the wishes of the party who had other preferred members.MPs Alfred Keter (Nandi), Silas Tiren (Moiben) and James Gakuya (Embakasi North) had earlier been elected as chairpersons in the Labour and Social Welfare Committee, Agriculture Committee and Parliamentary Broadcasting Services committee respectively.
The Garissa Township MP said the relationship between the Majority side in Parliament and the Executive is crucial in the running of government business and it for whatever reason should not be considered as interference.
“There is no way someone can de-link the leadership of Jubilee in the Executive and the rank and file of membership of Jubilee Party in the House. That is why in the absence of Cabinet Secretaries in the House the Leader of Majority representing the ruling coalition is the bridge between the government and the legislature,” Duale said.
To draw a contrast between the relationship that the Executive and Parliament hold, on Tuesday during a Jubilee Parliamentary Group meeting at State House chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Head of State read the riot act to Jubilee members who defy party order.