Senators from the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya coalition have explained why they walked out of the Senate on Wednesday after Speaker Amason Kingi denied a motion to question Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria about media attacks.
Speaker Kingi stated that the motion violated the standing orders and was ruled inadmissible because it did not follow the required procedure of filing a motion in the House.
Following the walkout, the senators chastised the House for acting in an unconstitutional manner by inviting CS Kuria to the House floor while a motion to censure was pending.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna argued that cabinet secretaries with “questionable conduct” should not be allowed into the Senate chambers, noting that there is already a court case pending on CS Kuria’s conduct.
“On this particular issue of sittings in the morning where Cabinet Secretaries are allowed into our chamber, we as the minority side filed a case in court and the matter is awaiting judgment and that is the reason why we have taken a position that if you want to bring Cabinet Secretary to the floor of the house you must amend the constitution, not amending the standing orders the way they did,” said Sifuna.
Senator Sifuna stated that he would rather tolerate any other Cabinet Secretary than CS Kuria in the chamber.
“We cannot sanitize illegality, unlawfulness, an unconstitutional thing by going there to again ask Moses Kuria questions. And even if it was allowed, it was legal; we can talk to any other CS but not somebody like Moses Kuria who has no respect for himself or anybody,” he stated.
Nominated Senator Beatrice Ogolla backed up Sifuna’s claims, saying that CS Kuria is incompetent to hold office and lacks the integrity to hold a leadership position, and she called for his resignation.
“I thought the president should have sacked Moses Kuria a long time ago as CS. I think the ethics and integrity chapter of the constitution has been violated. Kuria Moses has no respect for himself, he has no respect for institutions and he has no respect for this country and the best thing the president can do before he steps down is to sack him,” said Ogolla.
Nominated Senator Shakilla Abdalla, for her part, claimed the government is leading the country into oppressive governance.
“Hii serikali ya kenya kwanza inakuja kuturejesha nyuma wakati wa giza na ndio tunakataa. Hii serikali inaonekana si serikali imekuja kusaidia nchi wala kupeleka nchi mbele, ni serikali imekuja kugandamiza wananchi na kuturejesha nyuma wakati wa utumwa,” Shakilla lamented.
