Senators on Wednesday, July 26, censured three cabinet secretaries calling for them to be fined Ksh500,000 each for failing to honour summons to respond to various issues in their ministries.
During the Senate Proceedings, Speaker Amason Kingi informed the legislators that the three cabinet secretaries, Alfred Mutua (Foreign Affairs), Susan Nakhumicha (Health), and Florence Bore (Labour) had communicated their inability to attend, but expressed dissatisfaction with their late communication.
Speaker Kingi lamented that the late communication was likely to disrupt house business and called for tougher penalties to rein in the ministers.
"We will write to the CSs and engage more with the Prime Cabinet Secretary because certainly, this is behaviour we as an institution will not tolerate," Kingi remarked.
"If a CS will not appear before the Senate, it is courteous to write in good time," he added
Following the development, several senators suggested various penalties to deter cabinet secretaries from blocking parliamentarians from discharging their oversight mandate.
"I think Mr. Speaker you need to invoke the non-appearance fine so that they can feel the pinch. Kenya is losing because we do not address the issues raised by citizens through petitions," nominated Senator Margaret Jepkoech Kamar suggested.
The senators particularly took issue with Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha who they accused of failing to honour several summons.
Senate Majority leader and Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot, a close President William Ruto ally, warned that going forward, Parliament would take a tougher stance. He stressed that appearing before legislators was mandatory.
"We were not calling the CSs to engage them in idle talk, these are issues raised by Kenyans. I know that Mutua did not wake up and remember he had to travel, " Senator Cheruiyot raged.
The senators questioned why the CSs were afraid of being held accountable. Most of them quipped that failure to honour the summons raised more questions about their transparency.
The senators warned that cabinet secretaries cannot continue to offer flimsy excuses to avoid answering critical questions.
On the brighter side, the senators lauded Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki for honouring all summons.
Instructively, President William Ruto is a huge advocate of cabinet secretaries being held accountable in parliament. The Head of State's Kenya Kwanza coalition even amended house standing orders to facilitate this change.
