OPANGA: What we can learn from ongoing Jubilee purge

Several important statements emerge from the recent performance of Kenya’s Senate.

One, Parliament exists, first and foremost, to serve the interests of the President and leaders of the dominant parties. Therefore, MPs are vessels of party leaders.

Two, this Senate is a veritable shark pool. Senators devoured their majority leader, deputy majority leader and deputy speaker in just two days.

If some quarters make good on their threat to impeach Deputy President William Ruto, and if the proceedings that led to Deputy Speaker Kithure Kindiki’s sacking are any guide, the DP will walk into a feeding frenzy in the Senate.

Three, the ruthlessness and bloodbath in the Senate is a warning to Dr Ruto, to whom the purged trio were allies, would-be dissenters in the governing Jubilee Party, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM), the National Assembly and wider political arena: toe the party line or perish.

Indeed, party grandees, including Prof Sam Ongeri (ODM) and Mr Samuel Poghisio (Kanu), big beasts James Orengo (ODM) and Ephraim Maina (Jubilee), and emerging stars Ledama Olekina  (ODM) and Mutula Kilonzo Junior (WDM) told Prof Kindiki he erred by defying his party.

DIRTY GAME

Let me paraphrase the legislators: your goose is cooked, deadpanned Mr Ledama. Had I met you earlier, I would have advised you differently. This is not academia, Prof Ongeri chimed in. You did the right thing for the wrong reason, Mr Orengo intoned. This is politics and politics has no form, delivered Mr Kilonzo.

Four, the Senators made the point that politics is different from other disciplines. As Poghisio told it, one morning he was an honourable member of Parliament but in the afternoon he was declared a stranger (persona non grata). Why? He had just been expelled from his party.

Politics has no rules or, as Mr Olekina told Prof Kindiki, it is a dirty game. It did not matter that senators agreed that Prof Kindiki had been an impeccable leader, an exemplary deputy Speaker and was a man of conscience, integrity and character.

What mattered was that Jubilee was unhappy that Prof Kindiki missed a Jubilee Parliamentary Group meeting. What counted for everything was that he had fallen out with the President. That drove senators from all political parties to the feeding frenzy.

PG MEETING

Five, the performance of senators in prosecuting Prof Kindiki lacked quality and depth. Indeed, Speaker Kenneth Lusaka ruled that the mover of the motion, Mr Irungu Kang’ata, did not have to explain why the House should sack the deputy Speaker, it esteems.

Even when Mr Kang’ata and Mr Johnson Sakaja misled the House, legislators rushed on. Mr Kang’ata, seeking to justify the sacking, attempted to lionise the Jubilee Parliamentary Group.

He said such a group and meeting kicked Theresa May out of government. Wrong. Mrs May resigned last June when 70 Conservative Party associations backed a motion of no confidence in her. Reason? Her disastrous handling of Brexit. It was she who informed her MPs she would be stepping down.

Next, Mr Kang'ata claimed a parliamentary group meeting had saved President Trump from impeachment. Wrong. The Democrat-controlled House voted to impeach the President. Why? He had solicited foreign interference in US elections. But a Republican-dominated Senate vote cleared him.

Mr Kang’ata said a parliamentary group meeting recalled South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki. Wrong. The President was recalled by the National Executive Committee, the top organ of the African National Congress. Why? A court ruled Mr Mbeki interfered with the judicial process in regard to prosecution of corruption.

HARBINGER

Mr Sakaja claimed the former House of Commons Speaker is his friend yet called him Becrow. His name is John Bercow. And he said Tory MP Crispin Blunt gave no reason for his no confidence motion in the Speaker last year.

Here is the motion: “This House believes that it is impossible to sustain belief in the impartiality of the Right Honourable Member for Buckingham, and therefore, has no confidence in the Speaker.”

Importantly, before tabling the motion, on Twitter and in a letter to MPs, Mr Blunt had explained that Mr Bercow had to go because he was biased in his Brexit rulings.

Second, Mr Sakaja did not inform the House that Mr Blunt filed his as an Early Day Motion (EDM). These are not usually debated, but are used by MPs to express their opinions.

Watch carefully. By this purge your MP is being programmed on how to debate and vote on upcoming constitutional and governance changes.