National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi on Thursday acted as the mediator between two Members of Parliament (MPs) who were about to escalate a disagreement they had.
The two MPs, Simba Arati (Dagoretti North) and Daniel Maanzo (Makueni), threatened to marshal members into civil disobedience if Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and Trade CS Adan Mohamed were shielded from liability in the mercury sugar scandal.
Both Maanzo and Arati were committee members present at the joint proceedings that probed the contaminated sugar scandal.
The committee on Agriculture and Livestock and that on Trade, Industry and Co-operatives had recommended having the CSs, along with former Agriculture CS Willy Bett, take personal responsibility for the poisonous sugar that flooded the Kenyan market.
[caption caption="MP Simba Arati (stooped over) holding discussions with members of the Agricultural Committee in the 11th Parliament"]
[/caption]
The two MPs were enraged by an alteration that was made to their report indicating that the CSs would only be investigated and not prosecuted as suggested.
"This was not what we discussed and approved on Wednesday morning. There are elements within the committee who watered down the recommendations to suit their own interests.
"But we will not take this lying down because we are talking about a matter that concerns the health of all Kenyans," Arati noted.
Maanzo added, "This is a pure forgery. The buck stops with the two committee chairmen who led the probe. What we are saying is that the report must be amended or else Parliament stands to embarrass itself for passing a forged document that can successfully be challenged in court."
MP Kanini Kega who chaired the joint committee on the sugar probe distanced himself from the doctored report, assigning blame to the lawyer who drafted it.
"I am as shocked as they are. They should ask the lawyer who drafted the report because I approved it immediately and tabled it in the House," Kega noted.
Speaker Muturi ended the near-fight with direction to have the House Business Committee review the matter and put it up for debate in subsequent sittings.
[caption caption="MP Kanini KEga who chaired the joint committee probing the contaminated sugar scandal"]
[/caption]
