Lawmakers furious as Cabinet Secretaries snub invite
Mercy Mwai @wangumarci
A parliamentary committee has threatened to sanction three Cabinet Secretaries for snubbing summons for them to explain the country’s preparedness on the global coronavirus threat.
Members of the parliamentary committee on health took issue with Fred Matiang’i (Interior), Mutahi Kagwe (Health) and James Macharia (Transport) for allegedly treating the coronavirus issue casually.
Led by Murang’a Woman Rep Sabina Chege (National Assembly, Health) and Trans Nzoia Senator Michael Mbito (Senate, Health), the MPs ordered the three appear before them today without failure.
They threatened to report Macharia, Matiang’i and Kagwe to Speakers Justin Muturi (National Assembly) and Kenneth Lusaka (Senate) for gross misconduct.
The joint committee had invited the three ministers to appear before it today to shed more light on the country’s preparedness in the event of the coronavirus outbreak.
The lawmakers also expected to be briefed on whether the 239 Chinese who entered into the country last week were quarantined in a KDF facility as ordered by a court.
“This is a very serious matter. We are going to adjourn today’s sittings but we tell the CSs to appear tomorrow at 3.30pm without failure.
This committee is going to write to the two Speakers to allow members to miss the afternoon sitting so as to deal with the matter, ” said Chege
The anger and disappointment by MPs, came after they heard that Matiang’i who had sent Immigration Director General Alexander Muteshi to represent him was chairing the National Development Implementation and Communication Cabinet Committee.
Kagwe, who sent the Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Amana, was attending his first Cabinet meeting while Macharia, who sent his Principal Secretary Solomon Kitungu, was appearing before a Senate committee.
However, Amana said he was not aware of the whereabouts of the Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache who had signed the brief to Parliament .
“The new CS is attending his first Cabinet meeting. As for the PS I don’t know where the PS is at the moment,” said Amana.
But despite the explanations to justify their absence, MPs still accused the three of not taking them seriously as representatives of the people and demanded that the sittings be adjourned.
The legislators said there were pertinent issues that they had wanted to raise including to be briefed as to why the ministry was using temperatures to determine whether the visitors are free from the virus.
Senator Mbito said they had asked the CSs to appear to shed light not only on the 239 Chinese nationals but also on the meaning of self-quarantine as well as provide the names of the individuals who allowed the aircraft into the country,
Seme MP James Nyikal said that the government is not taking the issue of Corona Virus seriously as it is clear that the technical teams in the ministry had not advised the government on how bad the virus is.
An angry Nyikal reminded the Ministers’ representatives that the reason why they wanted the substantive CS to appear before the committee was to get a brief of the overall national pandemic preparedness and national plan.
He said: “The situation we are facing is serious. I don’t see how three CSs can skip a meeting. We want this CSs here plus the technical people like the Chief Public Officer.”
Kesses MP Mishra Swarup said that the cited Cabinet sub-committee chaired by Matiang’i should have been postponed to allow the CS to attend the committee meeting.
Kisumu Senator Fred Outa said there is no justification as to how a serving Cabinet Secretary can miss such a meeting which is aimed at deliberating on matters of national concerns such as the Corona Virus.
He said: “This is a serious matter but it seems that the CSs want to endanger the lives of our people and that is why they are taking this matter casually.”
Tongaren MP Eseli Simiyu told off the CSs who he accused of not taking MPs work seriously and demanded that they be reported to the Speaker.
He said: “ This would have been an opportunity by the CSs to allay fears Kenyans have, explain measures taken by the government but they refused to come. These people should be reported to the Speaker for gross misconduct.”
