House business was temporarily disrupted on Wednesday morning as a section of opposition senators staged a walkout protesting the dismissal of a motion seeking to block Investment, Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria from addressing Senate.
Trouble started when Senate Speaker Amason Kingi ruled Nairobi senator Edwin Sifuna out of order after seeking a clarification on whether allowing Kuria to appear before the house pending a motion of censure against him amounted to an opportunity to sanitize himself from accusations of abuse of office.
“I take great exception to the presence to somebody the subject of such of a motion in this hallowed house. My fear is that the CS is going to use this privilege of a appearance before the senate to cleanse himself. “ Claimed Sifuna.
The opposition n senators would stage a walkout soon after Kuria was given the green light to address the house.
According to Sifuna, a person subject to a motion of censure should not be given an opportunity to appear before the house before the matter is dispensed with.
“Honorable speaker, I wanted some clarification of guidance from the chair on standing order number one. Mr. speaker by way of information, the person listed to appear before the senate this morning is the subject of a censure motion that I filed on this senate on the 19th of June 2023.” Asked Sifuna.
Senate majority leader Aaron Cheruiyot accused the opposition of lacking goodwill in their attempt to block the CS from answering to questions from senators.
“What is the justification Mr. Speaker of someone who has never shown any interest whatsoever in this process that has been happening. But today they want to stop some of us who want to keep holding the executive into account.” Argued Cheruiyot.
In his direction, the speaker ruled that he was not aware of the said censure motion and as such, it cannot be a subject of discussion on the floor of the house.
“Before moving a motion, a senator must file a notice of motion and before you move that notice of motion, the first thing you do is to take a copy of the proposed motion to the office of the clerk. Thereafter, the clerk wills submit that proposed motion to the office of the speaker. The speaker can either admit or dismiss the motion.” Observed the speaker.
