Senators allied to the Azimio la Umoja coalition have walked out of the house after they failed to arrive at an amicable solution on how the Speaker elections should be held.
While explaining on why they walked out of an ongoing sitting in the first Senate’s sitting, Homa-Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’ noted that they had raised objections to the clerk of the Senate who did not address them properly and that he was in a rush to make a ruling.
“We feel that the clerk did not address the issues we raised properly, we feel that the clerk operated just like Chebukati operated at Bomas. He was in such a rush to make a ruling when we had all the time to dispense with issues,” said Kajwang’
“We are not going to be part of that charade and we assure you that this Senate will always stand up for the right things.”
Speaking on the issues outside the Parliament building, Kajwang stated that they did not have enough representation in the House because the majority of the nominated Senators had not appeared at the premise because they were gazetted at the last minute and availing themselves was not feasible.
“We have asked the clerk to adjourn the house to allow the nominated senators to submit their applications and the clerk has dismissed us on a technicality and we felt that it was not fair.”
The second issue they raised was the need to investigate the suitability and credibility of the candidates who had expressed interest in the position of Speaker.
According to Kajwang, Kingi, who was campaigned by the Kenya Kwanza Team, had reports declaring him unfit to hold public office.
“We cited that the house has previously indicted some of the persons who have placed their applications to be Speaker of the Senate and we needed a determination from the clerk whether indicted persons should be eligible for the position of the Speaker,” he said.
“When I was the chair of the Public accounts committee I produced several reports that declared Kingi unfit to hold public office. Is that the person we want to sit in Senate that will be over sighting county governments?” asked Hon.Kajwang’
Despite the absence of the Azimio team, Amason Kingi, was declared the winner of the Speaker election, with 46 votes, meeting the two-thirds rule threshold, while Meru Senator Murungi Kathuri was elected as the new Deputy Speaker of the Senate.
