MP Jane Kagiri opposes ODM’s bid to chair budget committee
By Arnold Ngure, February 19, 2025Laikipia County Woman Representative Jane Kagiri has expressed her opposition to a proposal by the ODM party to take over the leadership of the powerful budget and appropriations committee previously held by Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro.
Speaking during a TV show on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, Kagiri observed that the leadership of the committee cannot go to ODM as they have already been handed the position of Treasury Cabinet Secretary.
“We already gave them the CS Treasury, so the budget remains with Kenya-Kwanza. We cannot give both of them. That is automatic,” Kagiri said.
“They are allowed to ask for as much as they want. However, it is a broad-based government and we agree on what goes and what doesn’t. We cannot cede CS Treasury and chair of the budget and appropriations committee. That we can’t,” she maintained.
Kagiri’s statements were echoed by Mbeere North MP Geoffrey Ruku who equally opposed that the powerful budget committee leadership should go the ODM way.
Coalition of many parties
He noted that the Kenya-Kwanza government was a coalition of many other parties and that ODM was asking for too much at the expense of the other constituent parties.
“As far as the chairmanship of the budget committee is concerned, I strongly oppose this position going to the opposition,” Ruku noted.
“It is a broad-based government but also Ford-Kenya and other parties were part of this arrangement. It is not broad-based with only one political party. We cannot antagonize other political parties so that one party may be excessively accommodated,” he added.
“From where I sit, I don’t support that push for ODM to have the position of chairperson of the budget committee. We have some regional dynamics which will affect some part of our political base if it goes the ODM way.”
The committee leadership is set to be revealed on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, when 18 committees are expected to be reconstituted.
Intense lobbying for the positions up for grabs has dominated the political circles, with loyalists of the former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua at the helm of the committees facing a bleak future.
Reports indicate that members of the opposition have already expressed interest in various committees including the budget and appropriations which was previously led by Ndindi Nyoro.
The accommodation of ODM leaders in government seems to breed dissent from Kenya-Kwanza, with a section of leaders voicing their concerns over the matter.