Committee set to table report in National Assembly

The National Assembly's Committee on Appointments has approved all nine Cabinet nominees it vetted last week.

However, the review team, chaired by Speaker Justin Muturi, expressed reservations about one nominee but approved him all the same, a member of the committee told The Standard yesterday.

The committee will this afternoon table the vetting report in the National Assembly, which resumes sittings after a two-month break.

The sittings will, however, be preceded by a Jubilee Parliamentary Group meeting at State House this morning.

In Parliament, the legislators are expected to discuss the report of each of the nine Cabinet Secretary nominees, with a view to either adopting or rejecting their individual nominations.

But there are all indications the report will be endorsed by the assembly dominated by Jubilee Party MPs after the National Super Alliance (NASA) yesterday indicated it would not participate in the debate.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have this morning summoned all Jubilee MPs to a House group meeting at State House, where the party is expected to whip its members to approve all the names.

National Assembly Leader of Majority Aden Duale said it was their mandate to ensure that the President’s agenda ran without disruption.

TAKE POSITION

“We have a Parliamentary Group meeting this morning and we are going to take a position on the Cabinet secretaries, ambassadors and principal secretaries (nominees)," he said.

The nominees are Margaret Kobia (Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs), John Munyes (Petroleum and Mining), Monica Juma (Foreign Affairs), Farida Karoney (Lands) and Peter Munya (East African Community).

Others are Simon Chelgui (Water and Sanitation), Rashid Achesa (Sports), Ukur Yattany (Labour) and Keriako Tobiko (Environment).

After the report is adopted, Uhuru will appoint them to their various dockets.

Mr Duale said after the tabling of the report, he would move a motion seeking a two-day extension before the report could be discussed in the House.

NASA has, however, indicated it will not participate in discussing the report because it does not recognise Uhuru as the appointing authority.

National Assembly Leader of Minority John Mbadi yesterday said NASA would also skip the vetting of principal secretaries and ambassadors.