The in-tray is full for members of the National Assembly who resume sittings today after a month-long recess for their last session ahead of the August 8 General Election.
The MPs have six months to conduct pending business, including passage critical laws that have a constitutional deadline as well as the passage of the 2017/18 national budget.
The sittings resumed today as opposed to February 7 after they altered the calender of the house in order to discuss Budget related issues.
This will be the last session of the 11th parliament which came in to force after the promulgation of the 2010 constitution that created the bi -cameral parliament.
It is expected that the House will be adjourned Sine Die (indefinitely) two months before the elections in August to pave way for campaigns .
However it is expected that there will be quorum hitches especially now that mps are gearing up for campaigns ahead of the August polls as they will concentrate more on their re-election campaigns than on legislative matters in the coming months.
The last session is expected to be active for only the next two months after it resumes sittings as
March will mark the start of a busy period for the legislators as they individually seek re-election.
The Elections Act requires all political parties to finish their nominations 60 days and submit lists of their members at least 90 days to the date of the election.
During this session the mps are expected to conclude Budget items among them 2017/18 budget estimates, 2016/17 supplementary item 1, Division of Revenue Bill, County Allocation Bill, Appropriation Bill 2017/18 and The Finance Bill.
The National Treasury wants the National Budget read early to ensure the 2017/2018 Budget is appropriated in good time for smooth operations of the budget before and after the 2017 General Election.
Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich wants MPs to scrutinize and approve the Budget Statement in January so it can be passed in April.
The special calendar shows Budget Estimates will be submitted to Parliament by end of January and not end of April.
The passage of the budget comes early after mps in a special sitting approved the revised calendar to enable the Budget Statement be read in March as opposed to the customary second week of June.
It is is also in this budget that that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will get the remainder of its allocation to be used in the August polls.
The commission had prepared a budget of Sh 45b and was allocated Sh 19b in the 2016/2017 budget and will get a further Sh 19b in then 207/2018 budget.
The Budget Policy Statement was approved in December, with MPs approving the decision to restrict borrowing to Sh500 billion rather than the Sh582 billion proposed by the Treasury.
Budget ceilings were also set at Sh36 billion for Parliament, Sh18 billion for the Judiciary and Sh1.468 trillion for the Executive. Counties will get Sh291 billion to share equitably and an additional Sh32.6 billion as conditional allocations.
During this session the mps will also appoint members of the House Business Committee (HBC) that determines business to be transacted in the House as well as prepare the House calender that will run up to August 7th ahead of the elections.
The mps are also expected to pass about 20 key bills among them Privatization (amendment) Bill, Public Service Commission Bill, Sacco Societies Bill, Betting Control Bill and the Statute Law Miscellaneous (amendment) Bill 2016/17 among others.
It is expected that the law touching on two thirds gender rule may be re-introduced after it was rejected last year.
Last year the legislators failed to pass the bill into law despite extending the deadline from August 2015 to August 2016.
Following the move Centre for Rights Education and Awareness (Creaw), Community Advocacy and Awareness Trust (CRAWN TRUST) moved to the High Court to force the two houses to pass the law before this year’s elections
Also to be undertaken is the constitution of the Sessional Committees as well as determination of the fate of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) following serious allegations made against it by Elgeyo-Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen who wrote to the speaker requesting that the Powers and Privileges Committee investigate allegations that some PAC members took a Sh40-million bribe to protect banks mentioned in National Youth Service Scandal.
