Members of Parliament today skipped plenary sessions to prepare for the August 9 polls.
Deputy Speaker Moses Cheboi was forced to adjourn the morning sitting due to a lack of quorum.
The House, which required a total of fifty members for the commencement of business, failed to achieve the requisite number forcing the Speaker to end the sitting with only thirty-nine members in attendance.
Cheboi ordered for the quorum bell to be rang for ten minutes. He ordered for the bell to be rang for another five minutes but the required number could still not be achieved.
“Order MPs, I have given 10 minutes to ask members from wherever they are to come to the Chamber.
We at this time have 39 of us and we have the two Whips, waiting to come in, so even if they were to come in, we would be 41 so what that means is that we don’t have quorum even after being given an extra 5 minutes.
So Honourable MPs, I will do what is necessary,” the Deputy Speaker said as he rose to communicate the adjournment of the House till 2.30pm.
The adjournment has interrupted the consideration of thirty-one bills that had been lined up for debate among them the ICT Practitioners Bill 2020, The Children Amendment Bill 2020, the Poverty Eradication Bill 2020, among others.
The National Assembly reconvened on Tuesday after being in recess since March 4.
Before adjourning, the National Assembly passed the Division of Revenue Bill, which is now before the Senate.
The Bill is a priority in the Senate because the country is currently preparing its budget.
Because of the upcoming general election, the budget is expected to be read earlier than usual.
The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which was introduced in the National Assembly, will be the other priority Bill in the two Houses of Parliament.
The Bill proposed by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) calls for alternative methods to be used to relay results if technology fails completely during the August 9 elections.
The Bill has already attracted opposition from both sides of the political divide, saying it will create room for irregularities.
However, IEBC says the contents of the Bill had been distorted for unknown reasons.
