Senators have suffered a blow as the Senate Speaker, Amazon Kingi on Wednesday morning, declined to facilitate the issuance of fines to Cabinet Secretaries who fail to attend Senate sermons.
According to the Speaker, the Senators were only lamenting and their lamentations did not hold any grounds unless they tabled a motion under Standing Order 51 of the House.
“These compelling contributions that you have made would have been relevant if they were in the context of a Motion of Censure, what Senators are doing is merely to lament,” explained Kingi while presiding over the session.
This was in response to the Senators’ concerns that the CSs were intentionally snubbing the sessions.
It was reported that CSs, Musalia Mudavadi (Foreign Affairs), Aisha Jumwa (Gender & Culture), and Kipchumba Murkomen (Transport) on separate occasions failed to honour requests to appear before the Senate Business Committee (SBC).
Senators explained that the snub to attend the sessions should be on grounds of them having a Cabinet meeting or health issues that could be proven.
However, Tana River Senator Danson Mungatana proposed that the House institute an automatic penalty of Ksh1 million for the first snub and an additional fine of Ksh5 million for the subsequent sittings snubbed by the CSs.
Additionally, the Senator noted that the fines should be paid by the CSs out of pocket and not through government funds.
The Senate debated at large, the absence of Aisha Jumwa who had issued a letter explaining that she would be attending to duties within her schedule that coincided with the Senate’s sermon.
According to Migori Senator, Eddy Oketch, the letter from Aisha Jumwa arrived after Tuesday’s session which led to the Senators’ awaiting her presence on Wednesday.
In defence of their position, the Senators explained that “When we amended these Standing Orders it was in the interest of the people, we don’t represent ourselves, we represent the people of Kenya,” stated Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei
