Public participation in Affordable Housing Bill is a waste of resources - Senator Kajwang'

Homa Bay County Senator Moses Kajwang’ now claims that the just concluded public hearings on the controversial Affordable Housing was a waste of public resources.

Speaking on Citizen TV’s The Explainer Show on Tuesday, Kajwang’ chided the Kenya Kwanza Alliance for their continued push to pass what he termed as an ‘illegality’, saying it was contravening the stipulations of the Law and was against the advisory of the courts.

He reiterated that the Constitution calls for a process of concurrence between both the speakers of Parliament where the two agree on whether a bill affects the national and county governments.

In the case of Affordable Housing, the Senator averred that the current regime bypassed several processes indicating the bill passed through concurrence on December 4, 2023, despite both Houses being in recess in the said period.

“There is Article 110 that requires concurrence between the speakers of any House. That before any Bill is introduced in either House, the two speakers need to sit down and concur whether the matter affects counties or not,” he said.

“The publication of the Bill is December 4^th and the Senate was in recess; the entire Parliament was in Kigali for EALA games so we have no record from any speakers that there was concurrence of the bill.”

He added: “For lack of concurrence and referral to the Senate, and for lack of respect to the fourth schedule of Constitution, that has made housing a concurrent function between county and national government, this bill is a waste of public resources.”

Kajwang’ went on to fault the President William Ruto-led regime asserting that the executive was breeding impunity in the country by bulldozing its way against the law, something he cautioned against, saying the former administration attempted but failed.

Accordig to Kajwang, in order for Affordable Housing to see the light of day, the government has to adhere to the guidelines of the Law without taking shortcuts.

“The same case led to throwing out of more than 20 pieces of legislation three years ago…it was just the impunity of thinking that certain persons are above the law…of thinking that because the president wants something done, we can cut corners and avoid the Constitution,” he said.

“Sometimes we might want to move very fast and get to the destination but there is no shortcut; the route must be through the constitution.”

The sentiments of the MP came to counter Finance Committee Chairman MP Kuria Kimani who had insisted there was concurrence.

“The Housing Levy was thrown out for two reasons: it was discriminatory but at some point there was a show of a letter of concurrence between the National Assembly Speaker and the Speaker of the Senate,” Kuria had claimed.

Senator Kajwang’ remarks come in the backdrop of a recent court ruling which barred the two Houses; Parliament and Senate from undertaking public participation pending the determination of the case.

The process which concluded on Tuesday saw the joint committees of Finance and Housing of the National Assembly collect views from the public on the controversial bill.

The two committees are now set to hold a session with the Ministry of Housing on Wednesday to harmonise the views before retreating to draft their final report that will be debated in Parliament.