Opposition Chief Raila Odinga’s ODM scored big yesterday after its members took over all the positions of the newly constituted House committees formerly chaired by MPs from the Kenya Kwanza coalition.

Some of the Opposition MPs were elected unopposed while in the case where there was a contest, the fight was between lawmakers from ODM.

All the MPs loyal to ousted Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua were removed from their positions and some either placed in less lucrative committees such as the Parliamentary Broadcasting and Library as well as Members Services and Facilities formerly known as Catering.

The committees that held elections are the Audit, Appropriations and Select committees while the Departmental committees will vote today.

Intense lobbying

At the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) where there was intense lobbying leading to the election being held in closed doors, Butere MP Tindi Mwale and Garissa Woman Representative Amina Siyad were elected as the Chairperson and the Vice-Chairperson, respectively.

The National Assembly’s Standing Orders, the PAC chairmanship is reserved for a party or parties not forming the national government, with the opposition holding a majority in the committee’s membership.

Although ODM had settled on Tindi as its preferred candidate for the chairmanship, expecting him to be elected unopposed, internal dissent within the opposition saw a faction break ranks and fielded Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo to challenge Mwale in a competitive vote.

However, despite the move, Mwale who previously served as the committee’s vice chairperson for the last six months having taken over following the exit of John Mbadi who currently holds the CS National Treasury docket was declared the winner after he got 9 votes while Otiende got six votes.

The vice chair, Siyad got 11 votes against Wilberforce Oundo’s 4.

Said Tindi: “We have worked together over the past six months examining audited financial statements of government ministries, departments, and agencies.

Now that the committee is fully constituted, we have the opportunity to be more vibrant, ensuring that accounting officers uphold transparency and efficiency in the use of public funds,” he added.

At the Budget and Appropriations Committee ((BAC), Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro was kicked out as the committee chairperson and in his place Alego Usonga MP Sam Atandi was elected unopposed despite the Kiharu MP giving the polls a wide berth. His former Deputy Mary Emase (Teso North) was also axed and her place was taken up by Endebess MP Robert Pukose.

Sources disclosed that Nyoro’s decision to keep off the committee is part of his strategy as he had also vowed to ensure that he keeps off any engagement with the committee in future.

His ouster came hours after he became the topic of discussion in the National Assembly after lawmakers accused him of favouring his constituency by allocating more resources to it when he chaired the committee.

MPs claimed that the former budget committee which Nyoro chaired, had usurped its powers and proceeded to allocate more funds to their constituencies at the expense of other members.

Reads a brief from the committee clerk: “Hon. Members, by close of the nomination period, only one member, namely Hon. Sam Atandi had been duly nominated for the position of the chairperson, Budget and Appropriations committee Dr. Robert Pukose had been duly nominated for the position of the Vice-chairperson. Consequently, I hereby declare Atandi as the duly elected Chair and Robert Pukose as the duly elected vice chairperson of the committee.”

Speaking after his election, Atandi promised to ensure that they push for equity in terms of resource sharing even as he asked members to be prepared to deal with the Division of Revenue Bill 2025 and the County Governments Additional Allocations Bill, 2025.

Special responsibility

He said: “Any member of this Parliament can chair this committee. Chairing a committee of this nature is just a special responsibility given to us, therefore we are not special in any way and promise we are going to work with everybody on this.”

At the Public Investments Committee on Education and Governance, Bumula MP Jack Wamboka was elected as the chairperson and Kitutu South MP Anthony Kibagendi as the vice chair.

Wamboka retained his position as the chairperson while Kibagendi took over from Samburu West MP Naisula Lesuuda who was shifted to PAC as a member.

He said: “In this committee, we have faced a number of challenges because we audit 189 institutions and for some of them it was their first time. As a committee, we have a duty to ensure that officers are accountable and I am sure that we did well because if you remember we cleaned up Moi University and is now functioning after we referred the matter to the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission for investigations.”

At the PIC Social Services, Administration and Agriculture, Navakholo MP Emmanuel Wangwe and Caleb Amisi retained their positions of chairmanship and vice chairpersons.

At the Regional Integration Committee, ODM’s nominated MP Irene Mayaka took over the chairperson’s position that was previously chaired by Kipipiri MP Wanjiku Muhia, at the Constitution Implementation and Oversight Committee (CIOC) Runyenjes MP Erick Karemba took over as the chairperson.

The committee was formerly chaired by Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba who has since been moved to a lesser committee owing to the fact that he is an ally of Gachagua.