House committee wants President’s nominee rejected

By WAHOME THUKU

Kenya: President Uhuru Kenyatta is set for another embarrassing encounter with the National Assembly over the nomination of a lawyer as a member of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).

The Parliamentary Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs has accused the President of forwarding to the House the name of a nominee who had not been picked by selection panel in 2012.

The President will be on the spot over one of the pending appointments handed over to him by his predecessor Mwai Kibaki.

The committee claims the lawyer, Lempaa Suyianka, was not in the list handed to President Kibaki in September 2012, and which has been the subject of a court case.

The issue is expected to come up when the committee report tabled last week goes for debate in the House tomorrow. 

A selection panel headed by the Law Society of Kenya chairman Eric Mutua was set up in 2012 to conduct the recruitment. It advertised for the positions in July that year.

Early last month President Kenyatta forwarded five names to Parliament for vetting.

On February 14, Parliament published the names in the local media inviting any objections to their vetting scheduled for last Thursday.

The five — Kagwiria Mbogori for chairperson, and members, Lempaa, Suzanne Chivusia, George Morara, and Jedidah Wakonyo — were all vetted on Thursday.

The issue regarding the list was not raised to any of the candidates during the vetting. It was only later that evening as the committee deliberated on its report that the question of Lempaa’s candidacy was raised by one MP.

The committee proposed in their report that the name be rejected on the ground that it was not in the list of eight given to President Kibaki by the selection panel.

“There must have been doctoring of the names before they were presented to Parliament,” the committee was told.

The committee appears to suggest that the changes to include Lempaa occurred between September 2012 and last month.

“If the committee will table the initial list of the eight nominees with the advocate’s name missing, then President Uhuru would have to explain how the list was amended and why,” said a lawyer. He added, “If his name was in the initial list then it will be an embarrassment to the Justice Committee”.

Parliament will also want to hear whether the panel handed its list to President Kibaki in 2012 or the names were forwarded to President Kenyatta end of last year after the ruling of the case.