"No!" - MPs Shout at Raila Odinga in Heated Exchange

Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Raila Odinga/HANDOUT

Raila Odinga, the leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party, was heckled during a meeting at State House after he commented on the functions of Parliament and County Governments.

During a joint Parliamentary Group meeting in Karen on Monday, chaired by President William Ruto and himself, Raila, invited as a guest to discuss devolution and governance, encountered opposition when he proposed that Parliament was encroaching on responsibilities that should rightly be handled by county governments.

The role of parliament is representation, legislation and oversight and it is written there in the constitution.

“Parliament is not supposed to be implementing, parliament is supposed to be over sighting,” he said.

Raila said that there were only two levels of devolution, national and county and thus constituency projects are implemented at the county level.

“The constituency is in the county government while the national government is supposed to do national projects.”

This remark sparked reactions from the members of parliament who were at the meeting but Raila emphasized that he had the right to say so and that he was there when the CDF was first initiated by Muriuki Karue, a former Member of Parliament for Ol Kalou Constituency.

“I was there and we discussed with Karue when he was moving around to bring the CDF. The CDF was brought because of circumstances that were prevailing at that time,” he said.