National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi tells CORD to name Justice committee members by today

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi. He has given CORD until today to replace members it dropped from the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee. (PHOTO: FILE/ STANDARD)

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi yesterday gave CORD until today to replace members it dropped from the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.

Mr Muturi told the House that despite the Standing Orders stating that replacements should be done within 14 days, he had established that CORD had not submitted any names to replace the discharged committee members as required.

"I wish to draw to the attention of the CORD coalition and indeed the House that today, Wednesday June 29, is the 13th day from when the discharge of the members took effect, implying that only one day remains for the said vacancies to be filled," said Muturi.

"The coalition is therefore advised to hasten submission of nominees to the Committee of Selection for appointment to fill the vacancies," he ruled.

On June 16, the Speaker announced the discharge of 11 CORD members who sat on the Justice committee, protesting its continued handling of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission issues when the coalition was pushing for the process to be tackled by other organs.

The CORD members discharged from the committee were David Ochieng, Agostinho Neto, Peter Kalume, Fatuma Ibrahim Ali, Ben Momanyi, Tom Kajwang, Mutua Mutemi, Olago Aluoch, Christine Ombaka, Benjamin Andai and Mwamkale Kamoti.

Meanwhile, two Jubilee coalition members have written to coalition Chief Whip Katoo ole Metito seeking to withdraw their membership from House committees to accommodate CORD "rebels" who were de-whipped from committees.

MPs Moses Kuria (Gatundu South) and Johnson Sakaja (nominated) have requested Metito to replace them in the Energy and Finance committees respectively, with Kilifi North MP Gideon Mung'aro and Mwingi North's John Munuve, who were discharged from their committees by CORD.