NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 9 – Cabinet Secretaries will commencing March 23 appear before the floor of the National Assembly to answer questions of Members of Parliament for accountability purpose.
The National Assembly amended section 25(A) of the standing orders to have the Cabinet Secretaries appear before the house every Wednesday afternoon.
While moving the motion, Ugenya MP David Ochieng pointed out that since the 2010 constitution it has been a struggle to hold the Executive to account.
“What will happen is that every Wednesday we will convert the house to plenary where CSs will be appearing, the majority leader will be telling us one week prior on who will be appearing, and members will have a chance to ask supplementary questions,” he said.
Ochieng further elaborated that with several house committees some have been working on cross purposes while investigating issues that are linked.
“This house will be richer if all members hold CSs to account, rather than a few members of the committee doing that, we will also avoid a situation where CSs have been shacking their responsibility”
“It has been difficult for the chairperson of the committees to come and answer questions that are not in their purview,” he said.
Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwa mentioned that the move is aimed at ensuring that the President William Ruto administration is accountable to the common mwananchi on their mandate.
“I want to say that CSs must now be ready to come before the People’s representatives and answer questions with effect from 23rd march, and the speaker can exercise his discretion and allow as many follow up questions as possible, they must come prepared,” Ichungwa stated
“We now have a government that is not afraid of being accountable to the people of Kenya,” he stated.
In the changes to the standing orders, The Clerk of the National Assembly shall prepare and publish on the parliamentary website a tentative list of Cabinet Secretaries scheduled to reply to Questions and provide Reports to the House, a weekly programme showing the business of the House and a schedule of sittings of the various committees.
He will then circulate such programmes to Members, State Departments, and the media not later than the Friday of the week preceding such business.
In the changes to the standing order 42 (c), a Member shall ask his or her Question on the day it is scheduled in the Order Paper.
The Leader of the Majority Party shall inform the House of the date, time and order in which Cabinet Secretaries shall appear to reply to Questions and provide Reports to the House and committees.
The Speaker may, on request of the Leader of the Majority Party, vary the order in which Questions shall be disposed of, or defer a Question scheduled to be responded to.
The previous Standing Orders only allowed CSs to be questioned by parliamentary committees with the exercise only carried out by the select MPs in the committees.
In September 2022, President William Ruto stated that his government will give Parliament unfettered access to exercise the oversight role of the Executive.
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