This is comes days after President Uhuru Kenyatta wrote to the House Speaker Justin Muturi requesting him to suspend the Committee on General Oversight because it was in violation of the principle of separation of powers as provided for under the Constitution/FILE
Majority Coalition Chief Whip Katoo ole Metito made the announcement during the House sitting on Thursday while outlined the business to be transacted by the House next week.
This is comes days after President Uhuru Kenyatta wrote to the House Speaker Justin Muturi requesting him to suspend the Committee on General Oversight because it was in violation of the principle of separation of powers as provided for under the Constitution.
The appearances next week are however different since the Speaker will not chair the sessions as would be the case under the contested Committee on General Oversight.
Lenku and Kaimenyi had drawn the anger of Parliament after they unexpectedly took off from Parliament Buildings two weeks ago hours after the President’s Chief of Staff Joseph Kinyua directed CSs to skip the inaugural special sitting where they were to respond to MPs queries from the floor of the House.
The Speaker announced the indefinite suspension of the committee to allow the House Rules and Procedure Committee to facilitate consultations with the executive and report to the House on the need to amend Standing Orders to remove the general oversight committee or not.
Muturi however directed Cabinet Secretaries to continue appearing before respective House Committees every Tuesday between 10.30am and 12pm to answer questions posed to their respective ministries.
The National Assembly had changed its Standing Orders to require Cabinet secretaries to appear before a committee of all MPs, known as the Committee of General Oversight. The committee is chaired by Muturi.
Under the new system, Cabinet Secretaries were to appear before the committee for two and a half hours every Tuesday starting at 10am to directly respond to questions from members on various issues of concern before the House.
The new move meant all the 349 members of the National Assembly could attend and question Cabinet Secretaries during the sessions.
The new system was only put into operation last Tuesday upon the resumption of the House sittings after its long recess.
Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu was the first to appear before the MPs in the general committee sitting that was held in the main chamber of the National Assembly, where she was questioned on various issues concerning her ministry.
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