A delegation of Nigerian MPs drawn from the West African nation’s National Assembly and Senate on Tuesday visited the Kenyan Parliament for a learning tour with the foreign legislators keen to absorb practical knowledge they can apply in their home country.
Led by Miriam Odinaka-Onouha, a member of the House of Representatives of Nigeria and Senator Patrick Ndubueze, the delegation was hosted by National Assembly Deputy Speaker Gladys Boss who engaged the Nigerian lawmakers on mutual areas of interest.
The Nigerian delegation is undertaking a Strategic International Parliamentary Learning Tour for selected members of the Nigerian National Assembly to engage with other parliaments across the world on gender-responsive legal reforms.
“It is imperative for us as Legislators to continuously engage one another on our legislative processes, sharing both successes and challenges that we face in delivering services to our people,” Shollei stated as quoted by the official Parliament social media handles.
Delegation of Members of the Nigerian Parliament visit Kenya, 2 October 2024.
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Parliament Of Kenya
The Nigerian lawmakers in their benchmarking tour will be focusing on five priority areas including the mandate, composition, powers, and activities of various committees; and effective means of coordination and communication among committees.
Other areas they are looking to delve in include; the implementation of committees’ recommendations; successes and challenges in carrying out the committees’ oversight role and budget allocation to committees.
Deputy Speaker Shollei lauded the Kenyan Parliament’s success in tackling major issues including the milestones achieved on Gender-responsive reforms.
Shollei acknowledged the gains Kenya has made with regards to empowering women such as the increase in the number of elected female legislators, as well as in other areas of governance.
“Kenya has come a long way on matters of gender-mainstreaming and affirmative action. Although we are yet to attain our ultimate desired numbers and gender balance in the composition of both the National Assembly and the Senate, we are headed in the right direction, according to the statistics. ” Shollei said.
This is not the first time Nigerian delegates have visited the country for a learning experience. In August 2024, a different lot of Nigerian leaders traveled to Laikipia County for a benchmarking session focused on wildlife conservation.
Led by Minister of Environment Izaq Adenkule, the leaders aimed at learning how to strengthen legislative measures against wildlife trafficking in their country.
Interestingly, the Nigerian lawmakers arrived on the same day 291 Members of the National Assembly appended their signatures to a motion seeking to impeach Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Kenya and Nigeria share relatively similar governance structures which leads to periodical benchmarking trips by leaders from both sides.
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula chairing a preparatory meeting of the Appointments Committee on the vetting of Cabinet Nominees on July 25, 2024.
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Oliver Mathenge
