Speaker Justin Muturi: 'I will approve Waiguru motion'

NAIROBI: Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi has said he will not stop a motion to impeach Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru on account of a court order.

Mr Muturi said he will approve the motion, as soon as he receives it from the Clerk of the National Assembly Justin Bundi.

"These are matters left to the Legislature. No one can tell Parliament what to do. Nobody can dictate to the House. We are not children, we are not toddlers. If the motion comes before me, I will approve it using the normal procedures," said Muturi.

The Speaker said no orders had been served barring him and the National Assembly from prosecuting the motion adding that even if the orders are served, matters of impeachment were better left to the Legislature.

"I haven't seen any ruling. People may be talking about a ruling when there isn't any. If indeed there was such a ruling, surely I would have seen it by now," said Muturi after a meeting with Russia's Senate Speaker Valentino Matviyenko at Parliament buildings.

Muturi's position on the court order barring the House from discussing Ms Waiguru's impeachment motion comes a day after the National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale (Garissa Township) told The Standard that the courts had erred in telling MPs that they should not execute the impeachment until the legality of the Standing Orders that deal with the process is determined.

"The function of impeaching State officers is a legislative function. It is not a function of any other State organ. You cannot deny the National Assembly and Parliament for that matter, a function which the Constitution provides," said Mr Duale.

Duale said the Judiciary "has no business" stopping a legislative process.

"The Judiciary is supposed to interpret laws and give judgments on whether the laws or processes that go through the National Assembly and the Senate are legal or not," he said.