Lusaka calls meeting to discuss conduct of senior State officials
Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka will tomorrow convene a sitting of the Procedure and Rules Committee to discuss claims by senators that some State and public officials were belittling the House.
Senators have accused Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and heads of parastatals of failing to act on House resolutions.
“I want to assure you that I will call for the Procedure and Rules Committee meeting on Wednesday next week to look at that as a matter of priority. If it is approved, we should get the recommendations for the committee to follow up on the issues that will be discussed,” Lusaka (above) said last Thursday.
One of the officials on the spot is the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani who senators accuse of ignoring “some of the good work that the committees of this Senate are doing”, including recommendations on the register of debt and approvals to the National Treasury on the release of funds.
The lawmakers now are calling for the establishment of an Implementation Committee to follow up on recommendations of various committees arising from public petitions.
“A standing committee of the senate may make good recommendations rising from a public petition but without the Implementation Committee to follow up and ensure that these recommendations are implemented, it is an exercise in futility,” Vihiga senator George Khaniri said.
“Before the end of life of this particular Parliament, we must bring back the Implementation Committee that will ensure that resolutions made by this House are implemented,” he said.
Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula said efforts to have the Implementation Committee established to follow up House recommendations were yet to succeed.
“A whisper from a fly on the wall in the Senate Business Committee (SBC) tells us that your attempts to bring the Implementation Committee has been resisted by some Members of the same committee,” Wetangula said.
Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr, who is a member of the SBC, said he was not among the senators who are resisting establishment of an Implementation Committee.
“The Implementation Committee is necessary because the recommendations of the special Committee on Solai (dam tragedy) and that of the maize scandal have never been implemented,” Mutula Jr, who is also the minority whip, said.
Mutula matter of an implementation committee should no longer be the preserve of the SBC but should come to the plenary.
