Echoes of constitutional amendment have dominated the corridors of the both Houses Parliament in the last few weeks. The National Assembly was the first to move in that direction. The assembly marshaled the two-thirds magic number, enough to pass the Constitution of Kenya Amendment Bill, 2025. The object of the Bill was to entrench key Parliament-managed funds, among them National Government Constituencies Development Fund, popularly known as NG-CDF.
Successful mobilisation of the threshold needed was to pass this Bill was unsurprising. For the National Assembly, the NG-CDF is a matter of life and death. Having exhausted all conceivable legislative manoeuvring to rescue the Fund, and with the Judiciary rightly standing its ground on its unconstitutionality and setting a timeline for its retirement, constitutional codification was the National Assembly’s last hope. The Bill has since been forwarded to the Senate.
But at around the same time the National Assembly was moving its amendment, the Senate was deliberating about its own. And it recently published its own Bill, the Constitution of Kenya Amendment Bill, 2025. It is just beginning the legislative journey, with the First Reading scheduled soon. The framing of the Senate’s Bill predictably reflects what it considers its priority; re-configuring the fundamentally flawed Senate-National Assembly power (im)balance to the Senate’s detriment.
Tensions between the Senate and the National Assembly have persisted since 2013. The differences have played out in different spaces and platforms, including the Judiciary and within Parliament itself. The Senate has filed multiple cases in court in an attempt to address the debilitating flaw. Within Parliament, an attempt was made, albeit flawed, when the National Assembly originated the Houses of Parliament (Bicameral Relations) Bill, 2023. The Bill was doomed from the outset. Not only did it stall, but the focus has since shifted to the more, perhaps the only, appropriate option.
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With the Senate Bill due for First Reading, it is deserving to pass an opinion on its content. The Senate has made a raft of proposals, which if passed, would engender a semblance of dignity to the bicameral legislature.
Firstly, the Senate proposes to establish its leadership and order of precedence in the Constitution similar to that of National Assembly. Secondly, the Bill proposes to expand the Senate’s legislative scope, granting it powers of originating any Bill with the exception of ‘Bill on raising national revenues.’
Thirdly, the Bill proposes to empower the Senate to vet various State officers as well as play a role toward the removal of a member of commission or a holder of an independent office.
Critically, for a proper functioning the devolved system, the Bill proposes to establish a County Assembly Fund. The Bill seeks to free the county assemblies from their current crippling financial dependence. Care should, however, have to be taken to prevent any possibility of the Fund mutating into CDF-like entity.
Passing this Bill will be an uphill task, considering it would require a referendum. That notwithstanding, it is critical that hitherto muted voices on this question be unmuted and amplified. Senate’s quest deserves the support of every Kenyan if the legislative sanctity of Parliament is to be restored.
Mr Ogutu is a political commentator
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By Alex Ogutu