Nyamira senator, Okong’o Omogeni, on Thursday, October 13, protested the criteria used by Azimio la Umoja to select the membership of various committees in the Senate.
Omogeni, who was elected on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party ticket, decried what he termed as an unfair selection.
The selection, he lamented, did not consider various issues and hence fell short on the aspect of equity. He alleged that senators who had landed house leadership positions grabbed multiple slots in various committees.
“Our leaders have allocated themselves membership in all sessional committees. Yesterday a senator representing people with disabilities made a passionate plea that she be given membership in the committee of ICT but was excluded,” he stated.
“Somebody is in leadership, but they still want to serve in four other commissions", he added.
In addition, the senator raised his reservations about how Jubilee Party ended up with more slots to the extent of leaving out members of the ODM.
“Nobody is more special in the contribution that we made in garnering votes for Raila Odinga. The only way you want to thank the Kisii Community is to tell them that we deserve nothing.”
“ODM has 14 elected senators and six nominated, totalling 20. If you go to the Committee on National Security, it has got three members of Jubilee, yet the party has four members in the house.
"Where is equity here? Why not pick one Wiper, One Jubilee and One ODM?” Senator Omogeni posed.
His stance on the membership of the committees was echoed by his Tana River colleague, Johnes Mwashushe.
Mwashushe stated that the Minority side had failed to match their Kenya Kwanza counterparts in ensuring equity in the constitution of the committees.
"I think it is important for us to observe the way the majority side embraced fairness. Our leaders allocated themselves many positions.
If these are the leaders who will be leading us in the next five years, then Kenya Kwanza should be ready to rule for the next ten years," he stated.
The Senate approved members of various committees, including the Speaker's panel, the Procedure and Rules committee and the Powers and Privileges Committee.
