Three Cabinet Secretaries to be grilled as House resumes sittings tomorrow

Cabinet secretary, Education Jacob Kaimenyi addressing journalists at his office.

The National Assembly resumes its sittings tomorrow morning, with three Cabinet Secretaries set to appear before MPs to respond to their queries.

Minister Charity Ngilu (Lands), Joseph ole Lenku (Interior) and Jacob Kaimenyi (Education) will face MPs in the inaugural session.

The CSs will have between 10 and 20 questions to respond to will leave the Chamber once the time allocated to them ends.

Yesterday, Leader of Majority Aden Duale said the three had confirmed their availability and would respond to queries that MPs had raised, which have already been fowarded to the CSs.

“The Cabinet Secretaries have confirmed their availability on Tuesday,” Duale told The Standard, adding that legislators will also get an opportunity to seek clarifications.

The three will appear before the newly formed committee on General Oversight chaired by Speaker Justin Muturi. The Deputy Speaker will chair the committee in the absence of the Speaker.

The move to summon CSs, however, has received opposition from lawyers with the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) and Law Society of Kenya (LSK) terming it unconstitutional.

Both CIC and LSK say the summoning goes against the spirit of separation of power, following the promulgation of the new Constitution which created a presidential system where the Cabinet is picked from outside Parliament.

LSK chairman Eric Mutua said legislators could provide oversight by summoning Executive before committees of the House but rejected their appearance on the floor of the House.

“I see nothing unconstitutional about Parliament requiring Cabinet Secretaries to appear before committees. It is wrong, however, to require them to appear on the floor of the House,” Mr Mutua said

CIC warned Parliament against overstretching its powers, arguing that the move interferes with the Executive.

“It is unclear what oversight this entails and how it differs from the oversight provided by the other committees. This is likely to cause confusion and inefficiency,” CIC chairman Charles Nyachae said in a statement last week.

The CSs appearance is a departure from past practice, where committee chairmen answered questions from MPs on their behalf with the special committee meeting held every Tuesday from 10am to 12.30pm and all 349 MPs expected to attend.

In the past, MPs have accused committee chairmen of lacking the competence to respond to technical issues on behalf of CSs while others argue that by making chairmen, who are MPs, to answer questions on behalf of CSs was violating the principle of separation of powers between Parliament and the Executive.

This made MPs to amend Standing Orders to have the CSs face them in the House. The MPs pass their questions through the Clerk’s office, with the help of the office of the Leader of Majority.