Murkomen, Duale in an online tiff after State House visit on new law
The Senate’s reservations with the Health (Amendment) Bill has turned into a mudslinging match on Twitter between the majority leaders of the two houses.
National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale descended on his Senate counterpart Kipchumba Murkomen by dismissing his protests as hypocritical.
Shockingly, the two leaders were pictured in State House, Nairobi on Monday witnessing President Uhuru Kenyatta assenting the Bill.
A day after the State House visit, Murkomen protested on Twitter that Senate was not involved in the passing of the Bill despite a constitutional requirement for the involvement of both houses.
“Constitution makes it mandatory for Senate to be involved in the passing of all laws either by the concurrence of the speaker that it doesn’t concern county or if it does concern county must be debated & considered by both houses. That’s when you can call it an Act of Parliament. For the last 6 years, NA has made attempts to ignore the Senate especially hiding laws concerning county in miscellaneous amendments,” Murkomen posted on Twitter.
UNAWARE
Duale, in a series of tweets, denied Murkomen’s claims of being unaware of the Health Bill’s until minutes to the State House visit.
“Why did Senator @kipmurkomen wait until the Bill is assented to raise concerns on the nature of the Bill? Did he ever raise his concerns with his Speaker? The Bill was passed last year by the @NAssemblyKE why raise issues on the Bill 5 months later? Only him can answer but whatever his reasoning one thing is certain he has chosen to feign ignorance of the provisions of the Constitution. For what reasons only him knows,” wrote Duale.
He went on to accuse Murkomen of hypocrisy even as the Senate leader said he would be heading to court to challenge all laws touching on counties that were passed without the involvement of the Senate.
Never mind yesterday media was awash with pictures of Senator @kipmurkomen standing next to the President assenting to the same Bill which he is now challenging how it was processed by the @NAssemblyKE. This is pure hypocrisy and one which requires to be treated with contempt! pic.twitter.com/5aKfe3btxX
— Hon. Aden Duale (@HonAdenDuale) May 14, 2019