Senate Speaker Amason Kingi on Wednesday, July 26, barred Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna from accessing Parliament premises for a period of three days due to what he described as gross disorderly conduct.
Sifuna was accused of disrupting the speaker's procession during a previous session, which featured Nominated Senator Veronica Maina, a member of the Speaker's Panel, along with the Sergeant-at-Arms, the clerk, and a police officer from the Parliament Police Station. The Senator allegedly heckled them yelling "Shame!"
While ruling on the matter, Kingi deemed Sifuna's actions to be out of order and disruptive to the parliamentary proceedings and subsequently barred him from Senate chambers for a period of three days.
"I have made a determination that Sifuna's action in shouting as he did at the procession of the speaker amounted to a disruption or an attempt to disrupt the speaker's procession and constitute to gross misconduct pursuant to Standing Order 122 1 (a)," Kingi directed.
Following the decision, Sifuna stands banned from accessing Parliament offices, committee rooms, lounges and dining halls.
Speaker Kingi however observed that since Sifuna was a first-time offender, he deserved lenient punishment hence the three-day ban.
He, however, indicated that should the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Secretary General be found culpable again, he will be suspended for a period of 7 to 21 sitting days.
"I also direct the Sergeant-at-Arms to ensure compliance with the directive for the stated duration,” Kingi added.
The Speaker issued a warning to all other senators advising them to maintain decorum during house proceedings, failure to which, he will institute stern action against any offender.
According to Standing Orders 122 (1), a senator will be ruled out of order if he breaks a set of nine laws including defying a ruling from the chair, declining to retract use of un-parliamentary language, failing to declare personal interest in a matter before the Senate and persistently makes serious allegations without adequate substantiation.
Others include; deliberately giving false information to the Senate, voting more than once during a proceeding, failing to maintain decorum during vote division, demonstrating or making disruptive utterances against the suspension of a named senator and causing disorder during an address by the president or a visiting dignitary.
