On Tuesday, during a debate on passing a bill in the National Assembly, Millie Odhiambo, the MP for Suba North, and Kimani Ichung'wa, the majority leader, exchanged heated words.
Going after each other's nerves, Ichung'wah charged that his colleague from Suba North, a long-serving female legislator, had failed to lead by example for upcoming leaders. At the same time, Millie Odhiambo countered by saying the Kikuyu MP was a "dictator" who wanted to scare people.
"I know the honourable Millie may not want to hear this but young members like the honourable Njeri Maina of Kirinyaga is calm and willing to learn from older members. [We] ought to see more and better maturity from the older members and I would really beg Millie [that] next time exhibit the kind of maturity that is expected of her as the grandmother of the House," said Ichungw'ah.
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The drama started during the Third Reading of the National Government Administration Laws Amendment Bill of 2023, when Tom Kajwang, a member of parliament from Ruaraka, proposed rescheduling some of the Bill's clauses. This proposal was met with resistance from other members of the legislature.
MP Millie Odhiambo was the first to speak when the speaker gave the floor to members to address the issue. She tackled Majority Leader Kimani Ichung'wah right away.
She became enraged and chastised Ichung'wah for what she perceived as attempts to prevent members from discussing the Bill, even threatening to take the matter to court.
"I can see Ichung'wah trying to intimidate me but I am unintimidatable. What has happened earlier on is actually shameful in a democratic country you cannot deny members a chance to speak to a Bill," she said.
"Actually the majority is lucky because I'm not passionate about this Bill but should somebody want to go to court on this Bill I want it to go on record that we were denied a chance to speak."
A now-angry Odhiambo declared that she would express herself on the parliament floor by the terms of her legislative mandate and claimed that any attempts to silence her would always be ineffective.
"Even when you have the numbers use it by following what is provided constitutionally. You can't deny me a chance to speak. I was telling Ichungwah what some of the members from his own side are saying quietly that he is very dictatorial and he denies members a chance to speak," she roared.
"There are very intelligent members with Degrees but you are making people here look like vegetables, they cannot contribute in this House. This parliament is becoming a joke that's why some of us are hardly in this House. Let this House be a House of debate, representation and oversight. You can't make members come here and make us look like flower girls. We refuse to be intimidated."
She added: "I want to encourage my loving sister Njeri please learn from me, I am serving me third term, senior-most woman MP and as my sister is learning from me she will come back 3 or 4 times and even become Governor because she is learning at my feet. But if you follow someone like Ichung'wah who I'm told has not gone to Italy to study you will fail miserably."
Now that the House was in disarray, Ichung'wah seized the opportunity to refute Odhiambo's views without holding back.
He initially objected to the recommittal, arguing that since MP Kajwang was a committee member who drafted the Bill, it was nonsensical for him to ask for specific clauses to be revised, particularly during the third reading.
"There was absolutely no reason to recommit that clause. Since he (Kajwang) is a member of the committee of JLAC that considered this Bill is among the issues that would have also been considered by the committee at the committee stage," said Ichung'wah.
"It's also not true that members have not had an opportunity to debate this Bill. We are not in the second reading we are in the third reading therefore members including Hon. Millie had an opportunity to debate all the clauses. We should not sit here to listen to people telling us that they will go to court."
