Senators have threatened to institute censure motion against Cabinet Secretaries failing to appear to respond to questions in the plenary session.

This even as a section of the senators rooted for surcharging the Cabinet Secretaries who fail to appear and to respond to questions affecting the electorate.

In addition, the senators are also contemplating changing some pieces of legislation to block CSs from attending political rallies with the President and instead concentrate on policy creation and accountability to parliament.

The threats of the censure motion came after National Treasury and Economic Planning CS John Mbadi gave the Senate wide berth and failed to appear to respond to the questions in the plenary.

Angered lawmakers

In his letter to the Senate with reasons why he was not going to attend, Mbadi dropped the letter on the same day he was to appear, a move that angered the lawmakers.

Senate Speaker Amason Kingi fired the first salvo terming Mbadi’s letter as contemptuous since it did not indicate as to why he did not appear to answer questions.

“I have heard your frustrations, disappointments and concerns. This letter is contemptuous. It does not even indicate the reason why the Cabinet Secretary is not present. Standing Order clearly states that if a cabinet secretary fails to appear for no good reason, a Censure Motion can ensue,” said Kingi.

He went on: “Senators, you have a weapon to handle such kinds of cabinet secretaries. Move a censure Motion, so that this Senate can regain its respect. Move an official censure Motion against some of these cabinet secretaries, so that we can see some seriousness going forward.”

Kingi charged that the questions that are supposed to be answered by the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning arise from concerns raised by Kenyans, and not just the Senators.

He added that any cabinet secretary failing to appear for purposes of responding to the questions is failing Kenyans.

Senate Deputy Minority Leader Enoch Wambua (Kitui) said that it was regretful that Mbadi who is a former legislator was showing contempt to the house.

Wambua had raised a point of order that Mbadi has been failing to attend not only plenary sessions but also committee sittings which has now become a habit.

“It is the height of contempt for this. I expected that the Cabinet Secretary would have come here to especially respond to the question that I had asked about the welfare of Members of Parliament that left this august House way back in the 1990s,” said Wambua.

Senate Majority Whip Boni Khalwale (Kakamega) while contributing to the discussion, charged that, If Parliament is not going to rise, what is happening in the Broad-Based Government is not going to be any different with what happened during Grand Coalition Alliance.