Moses Wetang’ula: We are equal partners in CORD and I will vie for presidency on coalition ticket come 2017

Q: The National Assembly and the Executive have differed over Cabinet secretaries being summoned to answer questions in the House. Is President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive to bar them from appearing before the House constitutional?

A: On this one, the President is right. In a purely presidential system like we have, the Executive is accountable to legislature but it cannot be made part of legislature. Cabinet secretaries should and ought to, as provided in the law and in the Standing Orders, appear before parliamentary committees but not before the whole House. The moment you bring them before the whole House it changes the whole format of the presidential system and you start treating Cabinet secretaries as if they domicile in the National Assembly. Even in the Senate we have toyed with the idea of summoning them because of the inadequacy of answers we get through committees but after looking at the constitutional provisions and the law, they ought not and should not go to Parliament to answer questions.