National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi has revisited a matter that has persistently plagued the House, namely poor attendance of parliamentary sessions.
Specifically, the Speaker is infuriated by MPs missing committee meetings, which are vital for they deal with detailed examination of matters before they are presented to the whole House for deliberation, ratification and legislation.
Most of the MPs have developed the notoriety of skipping sessions and, worse, some only turn up to sign attendance to draw allowances but do not participate in the deliberations.
This poor participation is undermining proceedings in the House. Matters cannot be discussed in the House before committees pronounce themselves on them.
The committees deal with distinctive and specialised areas and the members should be experts on those areas so that they bring skills and experience in interrogating issues and guiding the House.
In the current structure, ministers are not MPs, and that means ministerial matters are presented and interrogated at the committee level. The committees also handle ministerial questions raised in the House.
Given the level of work expected of the committees, members must demonstrate utmost commitment.
For it is only through intense deliberations and reflections that competent motions can be tabled before the whole House. When committees fail to do their bit, legislation is delayed and government policies immensely compromised.
It is inconceivable for people to fight so hard to go to Parliament but once there fail to do what they are elected for.
Paradoxically, many MPs never miss the opportunity to tour the countryside, politicking and fighting opponents.
Most MPs are notorious for demanding foreign travels under the guise of the so-called benchmarking missions.
Some are equally loud when issuing impeachment threats against government officials whom they cannot manipulate. Largely, there are many MPs who are opportunists and only good at fleecing the public.
MPs who miss parliamentary sessions are defrauding the public and must be penalised and the practice stopped. By dint of their positions, MPs should demonstrate fidelity to the rule of law.
They have to be beyond reproach. Unfortunately, those are abstractions not tenable within the ranks of our leadership.
We concur with the Speaker that absentee MPs should be defrocked and removed from the committees.
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