The former Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly in Kenya provides a detailed timeline of the country’s working Parliament.
Mr Murumba Werunga is the former Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly in Kenya. He is also the first Clerk of the East African Legislature Assembly in Tanzania, and the first Clerk for the Pan-African Parliament.
Introduction The story of Parliament in Kenya in the last hundred years could be appropriately told in two distinct yet interlinked parts viz:
(i) The colonial era - being the period between 1907 and 1963, during which Parliament was referred to as the Legislative Council (Legco).The periodic lifespans of the Legco,were split into “Councils” each lasting five years.Thus, the first Council was inaugurated at a first sitting on 17 August 1907 while, the tenth Council, being the last council of the Legco,was dissolved on 17 March 1963.
(ii) Independence era - being the period between 1963 and 2007; during which, the Parliament has been referred to as the Kenya
National Assembly (KNA) or Parliament of Kenya (PK).A distinct lifespan of the National Assembly has been referred as ‘a Parliament’.Thus, the first Parliament was inaugurated at a first sitting on 11 June 1963 and the ninth Parliament was dissolved on 25 October 2007.
The creation of Kenya Kenya was affirmed as a territory under the British government admin- istered from 1885 to 1900 by Sir A. H. Hardinge, who in addition to this official appointment as His Majesty’s Agent and Consular General at Zanzibar,was designated the non-res- ident acting agent for Kenya. Sir Charles Elliot – who served from 1900 to 1904 – was the first Commissioner and Consular-General for ‘British East Africa Protectorate’ as it was then known. Sir Charles car- ried out two tasks aimed at laying foundation for the economy of Kenya.
The Kenya – Uganda railway and settler farmers The first major task was the con-
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struction of the Kenya – Uganda rail- way in 1897, linking the port of Mombasa through the vicinity of Kenya to Kisumu, a port on Lake Victoria.The second task was the opening up of the rich arable agricul- tural land in Central, Rift Valley, Western and Nyanza Provinces. Sir Charles encouraged British farmers to move in and acquire huge tracks of land and start modern agriculture. The two events stimulated a money economy from which the budding government would levy taxes to finance its operational costs. The arrival of the railroad at
Kisumu, opened up the vicinity which inevitably attracted increased European settlement and stimulation of commercial activities.
Agitation and politics of representation Sir Charles established an administra- tion system to manage the newly- opened area in Kenya .At the same time, the British government made it known that British East Africa was expected to meet the costs of both new developments, i.e. the construc- tion of the Kenya – Uganda railway;