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I’m not a sell-out, Linturi tells fellow lawmakers

Linturi was forced to cut his speech short as he tried to explain to them a motion he is proposing to introduce a Bill to amend the Constitution to completely shield the president and the deputy from prosecution while in office/MIKE KARIUKI

Linturi was forced to cut his speech short as he tried to explain to them a motion he is proposing to introduce a Bill to amend the Constitution to completely shield the president and the deputy from prosecution while in office/MIKE KARIUKI

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 26 – Igembe South Member of Parliament Mithika Linturi has decried the behaviour of his colleagues in the National Assembly and the Senate who booed him when he sought to address them during a Jubilee MPs retreat in Naivasha over the weekend.

Linturi was forced to cut his speech short as he tried to explain to them a motion he is proposing to introduce a Bill to amend the Constitution to completely shield the president and the deputy from prosecution while in office.

“For them to say Mithika is a sell-out I think is simplistic, its being myopic because they are not asking what circumstances led to Mithika not appearing in Parliament (when he filed a Motion of no-confidence against Anne Waiguru). In my political life which I have been for the last 18 years I have never been booed anywhere, not even in a political rally where I have been stopped from addressing people,” lamented Linturi.

Section 143 which he wants amended does not shield the president and his deputy from charges before an international court to which Kenya is a signatory. The section does also not give immunity to a deputy president from criminal prosecution while in office, but accords the president such immunity.

READ: MP wants Kenya’s leaders shielded from any trials

According to some of the MPs who attended the retreat, they heckled Linturi because they were harbouring anger after he abandoned his impeachment motion against Waiguru on the material day the motion was appearing on the Order Paper.

He however maintains that he did not abandon the motion on his own volition but that he was acting on Executive orders as the impeachment of the Devolution CS would have paved the way for the impeachment of others whom members would have fallen out with, an issue the Executive was avoiding.

“That time there was serious affront on part of government by ODM and the reasoning then was that if we open up this gate and the CSs were really not performing, then we would be opening a Pandora’s Box on the impeachment of CSs,” explained Linturi.

What further angered the Igembe South MP was that even as members shouted him down, the President did not protect him, and he now says he awaits the resumption of Parliament so that he can issue a statement on the matter and get it ‘off his chest’.

“Because of the behaviour of the MPs, I am going to get an opportunity when Parliament re-opens under our Standing Orders give a personal statement so that Members of Parliament and the country can understand because I feel I have a duty to explain what happen because I feel I can’t carry that baggage beyond now,” added Linturi.

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Linturi however said his latest move is not in relation to the Hague case currently facing Deputy President William Ruto, adding that this was not to shield them from taking responsibility for their actions as they would face the law once they were out of power.

During a retreat for Jubilee lawmakers last week, a resolution was reached to repeal the International Crimes Act 2009 which domesticates the Rome Statute.

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