That laws play a vital role in molding the socio-economic conditions under which we live makes it imperative that every citizen sufficiently understands the legislative processes involved so as to be able to make an intelligent appraisal of national issues.

The legislative power of the Republic is vested in the parliament of Kenya, which consists of His Excellency the President and the National Assembly. This power is exercisable by bills passed by the National Assembly. It is the formulation of law, which gives parliament its distinctive complexion as the legislature.

The National Assembly of Kenya consists of Elected and Nominated Members; who are currently 210 and 12 respectively. In the exercise of the legislative power of the Republic of Kenya, bills are passed by the National Assembly and become law on the President giving his assent, thus becoming styled, Acts of Parliament.

Similarly in its deliberative role and oversight of the Executive, resolutions adopted by the National Assembly are implemented by the Executive, headed by the President. Thus, use of the term Parliament refers to an institution larger than the National Assembly and the President in their separate entities.

The 210 members are directly elected in single member constituencies using the simple majority (or First-past-the-post) system while the twelve members are nominated. The speaker and the Attorney-general are ex-officio.

The procedure of the House provide for the formation of four kinds of Committees;
Committees of the Whole House; Standing Committees; Ad hoc Select Committees; and
Departmental Committees;

Committees of the Whole house
There are three types of Committees of the Whole House. Committee of the Whole House on Committee stage of a Bill, on a bill being given a Second Reading, it stands committed to the Committee of the Whole House, unless the House resolves to commit it to an Ad hoc Select Committee. Committee of the Whole House on the Budget is in charge of following the laying of annual or supplementary estimates of government expenditure before the House, and the budget speech by the Minister for Finance, while the Committees of Ways and Means; and of Supply deliberate on them in sequence. Both Committees are of
the Whole House.

The Committee of Ways and Means
Confines itself to deliberation on the processes suggested by the Minister for Finance to
raise funds to foot the budget for ‘he particular Fiscal Year. These deliberations are supposed to last three days.

Committee of Supply
Confines itself to deliberation on the distribution of funds to be raised in the Committee of Ways and Means to the various Ministries and Departments; this Committee does the
distributions within the twenty allotted days before October 31, each Calendar year.

Standing Committees
May also be known as Sessional Committees, and consist of a minimum of five and a
maximum of twenty Members nominated by the House Business Committee and appointed by the House, on a motion moved by the Leader of Government Business. The business carried out by the current eight Standing Committees is either routine and/or in-house. The lifespan of the membership of these Committees coincides with that of a Session. The Committees falling under this category are:-

• House Business Committee:- prepares and manages the programme of the business of the House on a weekly basis;
• Estimates Committee:- was deleted on November 10 1 997.
• Public Accounts Committee:- examines reports by the Controller and Auditor-General on Central Government expenditure and fund accounts;
• Public Investments Committee:- examines reports by the Auditor-General
  (Corporations) on accounts of state corporations;
• Speaker’s Committee:- examines matters relating to the welfare of Members and staff of the National Assembly;
• Standing Orders Committee:- examines matters relating to and makes periodic reviews of the Standing Orders as necessary
• Liaison Committee:- examines and co-ordinates matters relating to operations of the Departmental Committees; and
• Powers and Privileges Committee:- is established under the National Assembly (Powers and Privileges) Act, (Cap 6, Laws of Kenya), and deals with issues regarding privileges of the House, Members and staff.

AD HOC Select Committees
These are appointed by the House as and whenever the need arises to investigate, study
and make recommendations on certain specific matters and issues for consideration by the House.

The current Parliament (the 9th Parliament) is composed of the following political parties:

[Source:http://bunge.gov.ke]

By Jane Osore