Senator Moses Kajwang of Homa Bay County is now arguing that public funds were wasted on the contentious Affordable Housing public hearings, which ended recently.
Speaking on Tuesday's episode of Citizen TV's The Explainer Show, Kajwang chastised the Kenya Kwanza Alliance for their persistent efforts to pass what he described as an "illegality," claiming that they were going against the advice of the courts and the provisions of the law.
He restated that for the speakers of Parliament to determine whether a bill impacts the federal and local governments, there must be a process of concurrence as required by the Constitution.
Regarding Affordable Housing, the Senator claimed that the current administration circumvented multiple procedures, meaning that on December 4, 2023, the bill was approved even though both Houses were in recess.
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"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, 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 the Constitution, which has made housing a concurrent function between county and national government, this bill is a waste of public resources."
Kajwang continued criticizing the administration of President William Ruto, claiming that by imposing its will against the law, the executive was encouraging impunity in the nation. He warned against this, pointing out that the previous administration had tried but failed to do so.
According to Kajwang, the government must strictly follow the law's guidelines to implement affordable housing.
"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 MP's sentiments countered those of 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's comments are relevant, given a recent court decision that prohibited the Senate and Parliament from holding public hearings until the case was resolved.
The National Assembly's joint committees on housing and finance solicited public input on the contentious bill during a process that ended on Tuesday.
The two committees will now meet with the Ministry of Housing on Wednesday to reconcile their differences. After that, they will withdraw to finalize their report, which will be discussed in Parliament.
