The Senate was on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, treated to a rude shock after three cabinet secretaries failed to appear before the house for questioning.

The three, Musalia Mudavadi (Prime Cabinet Secretary), Njuguna Ndung’u ( Treasury) and Davis Chirchir (Energy) did not appear before the House for questioning, as had been scheduled.

Senate Speaker Amason Kingi noted that Mudavadi was out of the country hence he was not able to attend the grilling session.

“We received a letter this morning that the CS in charge of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs (Musalia Mudavadi) is out of the country on delegated duties and therefore he will not be able to be with us,” Kindi announced.

On Ndung’u’s absence, the Speaker announced that the CS was not able to attend the session since he had prior arrangements.

“We received a communication yesterday (Tuesday) indicating that the CS had prior arrangement in regard to COP28 being held in Dubai and therefore he is not available,” Kingi said.

The Senators have registered their displeasure over the failure of the three Cabinet Secretaries to appear before the Senate to respond to various questions from Senators.

Senate action

The Senators want the three CSs reprimanded for failing to honour the invites.

“This is not the first time the Prime Cabinet Secretary is failing to appear before this house. If this does not imply attitude, then what does? The Cabinet Secretary has an attitude about this house. He had a seven-day window during which he knew he was going to travel (so) he should have informed us. This is the time to sanction the Prime Cabinet Secretary so that he respects the house of equity which represents the 47 counties of Kenya,” Kakamega Senator Bony Khalwale said.

Kitui Senator Enock Wambua insinuated that the Cabinet Secretaries could be fearing questions from the opposition Senators, who had stayed away from the sessions to grill cabinet secretaries following a court case to determine the exercise’s legality.

“We (the opposition) had stayed away from the sessions on account of a legitimate court process. Once that process has ended, we are back to engage. I don’t know whether the cabinet secretaries are afraid of questions from the minority side in the house,” Wambua said.

Other Senators who spoke asked the leadership of the Senate to crack the whip on cabinet secretaries who fail to appear before the house, including sanctioning arrests against them.