No better than councillors.

opinion. n. 1. ~ (about/of/on sb/sth) (that ... ) your feelings or thoughts about sb/sth, rather than fact. 2. the beliefs or views of a group of people. 3. advice from a  professional person.

The Supreme Court may give an advisory opinion at the request of the national government, any State organ, or any county government with respect to anything concerning county government. ~ Art 163(6), Constitution of Kenya

The definition and the highlighted Article of the Constitution are important to better understand whether or not the Senate is talking out of its ass over the making of laws. In this case, the Senate has accused the Attorney-General of siding with the National Assembly in sidelining the Senate in the enactment of laws because all laws are laws that concern county government. They have extrapolated an advisory opinion on the Division of Revenue Bill to all Bills passed by the National Assembly. That is not what the Supreme Court said.

The Speaker of the National Assembly has been of no help. When he declared that the opinions of the Supreme Court were not binding, technically he was correct, but it was stupid thing to say in the middle of a political battle of wills between the National Assembly and the Senate. Now the Senate is trying to enlist the help of the Attorney-General in this on again, off again war between the two legislative chambers.

A rational examination of the facts should sort out the Constitutional wheat from the political chaff. It all boils down on the core mandates of the institutions in question. In Articles 95 and 96, one can sense the relative importance the Committee of Experts between the National Assembly and the Senate. Article 95 is replete with declarative phrases: "represents the people", "deliberates...and resolves issues", "determines", "exercises oversight" and so on and of forth. The phrasing in Article 96 in relation to the Senate is more tentative; there is a lot of "the Senate shall participate in..."

The Supreme Court is yet to examine the meaning of "a matter concerning county government." The self-serving justifications of the Senate are yet to be interrogated robustly before the Supreme Court. If the matter comes up for an advisory opinion, this is what the Supreme Court should say: while it is true that the broadest meaning should be applied to that phrase, from a practical point of view, a narrower meaning should be applied. The phrase should be understood in the context that where an act of the national government directly affects a county government, how it is governed, its administrative stability and such like, that is the time when the advisory opinion of the Supreme Court regarding that act should be sought. But not when the act is of a more general nature such as the enactment of a national law.

The Senate has failed to perform its duties faithfully. It has strayed far from its core functions. Its members' desire to be more relevant in the current political climate has blinded them to their legislative excesses. The Senate has demonstrated a spectacular myopia about devolution; it has done nothing to strengthen county government or county governance. It has hamstrung governors by entertaining incredibly idiotic schemes to impeach some of them. It has refused to cashier the National Executive for its meddlesome antics in the counties. It has so strayed from its proper constitutional place that it is only a matter of time before we start viewing the Senate as a superior version of the gangrenous limb we amputated from our body politic when we buried the local government for all eternity. They may have PhDs and some may be professors while others killed it in senior civil service positions of power and authority, but until they get their shit straight, Kenya's Senators, bar one or two true geniuses, are no better than MCAs or the unlamented councillors.