National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi on Thursday suspended debate on the motion to approve the seven nominees to the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC).
Speaking while delivering his judgment on the matter, the Speaker asked the National Super Alliance (NASA) to consult and decide on its nominees.
“In the circumstances and in fairness, I will suspend debate on this motion, allow the coalition known as NASA to sit and give me your names of nominees to the Parliamentary Service Commission.
"We don’t want communication from executive directors or such. You have leaders from these parties. Let them write jointly,” the Speaker was quoted by the Nation.
[caption caption="File image of National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi"]
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He made the ruling following complaints by Wiper Party legislators that they had been sidelined in the nominations.
On Wednesday, a group of Wiper MPs disputed the nominations stating that it was not inclusive.
Borabu MP Ben Momanyi termed the list unconstitutional claiming his party had been overlooked in the nominations.
According to Momanyi, sidelining of Wiper was unconstitutional since it qualified as a parliamentary party, by virtue of commanding at least five percent of the house membership.
"Under this law, Wiper has a right to demand a slot in the PSC. We cannot have a situation where two people decide these positions, and do so in disregard of the coalition agreement that guides NASA,” Momanyi was quoted by the Standard.
The Leader of Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale joined the conversation urging the House to protect Wiper from 'unfair treatment' it was getting from ODM.
“We cannot bring party dictatorship to the floor of the House. This is a serious constitutional issue that has been raised and we should not sit back when one party is being suffocated by its bigger brother,” Duale stated.
[caption caption="File image of Leader of Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale"]
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He called on Speaker Justin Muturi to protect Wiper from being denied its slot in the PSC.
“We are asking you to look at the constitutional issue raised and declare that a party known as Wiper, which is a parliamentary party as per our definition in the standing orders, needs to be represented in the Commission,” Duale noted.
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