Azimio senators: Why we walked out of Moses Kuria Senate grilling

Senators allied to the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya coalition have explained why they walked out of the Senate on Wednesday after a motion to grill Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria on media attacks was denied by Speaker Amason Kingi.

Speaker Kingi said the motion did not follow the required procedure of filing a motion in the House, stating that the motion breached the standing orders and was ruled inadmissible.

Speaking after the walkout, the senators faulted the House for what they termed as being unconstitutional by inviting CS Kuria on the floor of the House pending a motion to censure.

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna argued that they cannot accept cabinet secretaries with "questionable conduct" to be allowed into the Senate chambers, noting that there is already a filed case in court seeking to bar CSs from appearing before the chambers.

"On this particular issue of sittings in the morning where Cabinet Secretaries are allowed into our chamber, we as the minority side filed a case in court and the matter is awaiting judgment and that is the reason why we have taken a position that if you want to bring Cabinet Secretary to the floor of the house you must amend the constitution, not amending the standing orders the way they did,” said Sifuna.

Senator Sifuna said he would rather tolerate any other Cabinet Secretary in the chamber but not CS Kuria.

“We cannot sanitize illegality, unlawfulness, an unconstitutional thing by going there to again ask Moses Kuria questions. And even if it was allowed, it was legal; we can talk to any other CS but not somebody like Moses Kuria who has no respect for himself or anybody,” he stated.

Backing Sifuna's claims, Nominated Senator Beatrice Ogolla said that CS Kuria is incompetent to hold office and lacks the integrity to hold a leadership office, calling for his resignation.

"I thought the president should have sacked Moses Kuria a long time ago as CS. I think the ethics and integrity chapter of the constitution has been violated. Kuria Moses has no respect for himself, he has no respect for institutions and he has no respect for this country and the best thing the president can do before he steps down is to sack him,” said Ogolla.

On her part, Nominated Senator Shakilla Abdalla claimed the government is taking the country in the direction of oppressive governance.

“Hii serikali ya kenya kwanza inakuja kuturejesha nyuma wakati wa giza na ndio tunakataa. Hii serikali inaonekana si serikali imekuja kusaidia nchi wala kupeleka nchi mbele, ni serikali imekuja kugandamiza wananchi na kuturejesha nyuma wakati wa utumwa,” Shakilla lamented.

The accounts relate to the controversial tweets the CS published labelling Nation Media Group (NMG) journalists as “prostitutes”.

He even made a roadside declaration directed at government agencies to stop advertising with NMG, failure to which they would be sacked.

CS Kuria’s remarks angered many Kenyans who deemed it too low and juvenile, as journalists’ unions demanded an apology from the CS.