Speaker Justin Muturi is escorted to the National Assembly when it
resumed sittings on February 12, 2019. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
That MPs have been made a laughing stock
whenever Cabinet secretaries are summoned to appear before House
committees but fail to do so and no sanctions imposed on them is no
longer a secret.
Of late, committees
of the National Assembly have cancelled meetings because respective CSs
did not turn up to respond to policy queries. However, the case is not
the same with the Senate.
After
enduring a similar behaviour, the Senate finally stumped its authority
by locking out Chief Administrative Secretaries and Principal
Secretaries (PSs) sent to represent CSs. The firmness of the Senate
finally paid off, hence a CS would rather appear before a Senate
committee than a National Assembly committee.
National
Assembly committees that have had difficulties getting CSs to appear
before them include Implementation, Health, Energy, Transport, Public
Works and Housing.
FLEX MUSCLES
The
only CSs that have been diligent in honouring House committee summons
are Dr Monica Juma (Foreign Affairs), Mr Mwangi Kiunjuri (Agriculture),
Prof Margaret Kobia (Public Service, Youth and Gender), Mr Joe Mucheru
(ICT) and Mr Keriako Tobiko (Environment and Natural Resources).
However, the continued failure by a section of
CSs to honour House summons may reignite the debate to amend the
Constitution so that CSs are picked from MPs.
It
is also instructive that departmental committees appropriate money to
respective ministries, meaning that if they decide to flex their
muscles, government programmes would suffer.
The
National Assembly’s Standing Order 191 grants committees the enjoyment
and exercise of all the powers and privileges spelt out in Constitution
and other laws.
This includes the
power to summon any person under Article 125 of the Constitution to give
evidence or provide information. They also enjoy powers similar to
those of the High Court to enforce the attendance of witnesses,
including CSs. The same rules provide that where a summoned witness does
not appear, or appears but fails to satisfy the House or committee, the
House or committee may impose a fine not exceeding Sh500,000.
National
Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi is on record telling committees to stop
“pampering” rogue CSs and instead notify his office so it can take
action.
“We need to see committee chairmen begin to flex their muscles within the law,” Mr Muturi said.
A
few days ago, the Transport committee, chaired by Pokot South MP David
Pkosing, sent away Transport PS Esther Koimett after CS James Macharia
failed to appear to respond to the proposed takeover of Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport by Kenya Airways.
Health
CS Sicily Kariuki has also failed to appear before the Health committee
on numerous occasions. She has been sending Chief Administrative
Secretary Rashid Aman whenever she is required, a move that has not gone
down well with the committee.
INVITED SEVERAL TIMES
“I wonder why she continues to receive special treatment,” a member of the committee, who did not want to go on record, said.
Nominated
MP Godfrey Osotsi, Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Implementation,
said that getting Lands CS Farida Karoney to respond on the Mombasa
Cement land issue has been a problem. The MP said the CS has been
invited several times, in vain.
According to Standing
Orders, a witness is reminded twice before being served with summons in
case they fail to honour committee invitations.
The
MP urged Parliament to act tough. “I believe it is time they were
sanctioned so that they start respecting our work. The institution of
Parliament has been lenient with them as they continue to delay and
derail our work,” Mr Osotsi said, adding that Mr Mucheru was yet to
appear before the committee over Telkom Kenya’s takeover.
However,
Leader of Majority Aden Duale came to the defence of the CSs. “Where
the CS is not available, they communicate and the Speaker is always
notified. So far we have not had issues with their non-appearance,” he
said.
Mr Duale also urged
Attorney-General Kihara Kariuki to issue an advisory on jurisdiction
differentiation between the Senate and the National Assembly in terms of
summoning witnesses.
“I don’t see
why Senators should waste time summoning CSs in charge of Defence,
Foreign Affairs, Education … when their mandate does not concern
counties,” Mr Duale said.
Leader of
Minority John Mbadi said that MPs have power to deny a ministry funds if
they feel that the CS is an impediment to their work.
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