Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, slammed Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi over his failure to appear before the Senate.
Speaking on the floor of the House, Sifuna remarked that Mbadi ought to have come before that Senate instead of prioritising a state House function.
“We woke up very early in the morning to come and attend this session; the question that I was supposed to put to CS Mbadi is over a year old. It has taken him less than two weeks to become a proper Kenya-Kwanza Cabinet Secretary who has no respect for this house,” Sifuna said.
Mbadi was supposed to be questioned on the failure of the e-Citizen platform to process payments made to some government agencies.
“We cannot allow this because we want to engage with these CSs. I want to tell John Mbadi that this is unacceptable. And, in fact, it is worse that he was a member of Parliament. If he was plucked from the wilderness like some of the other people I see, maybe we would excuse him,” Sifuna stated.
Adding: “John Mbadi must be called to order. This is not the Mbadi I used to know. What have they done to him? He used to respect Parliament.”
Mbadi was to shed light on the financing and utilization of the national government and development budget for the Financial Year 2022/2023.
Nairobi Senator @edwinsifuna: The failure by the National Treasury and Economic Planning CS John Mbadi to appear before the Senate is unacceptable. He has to show respect for this House. #SenateLive pic.twitter.com/7RE6sAEDfe
— Senate of Kenya (@Senate_KE) September 18, 2024
The other issue that was to be addressed was the growing concerns over the delayed processing of pension benefits to retired civil servants.
The House was informed that Mbadi had been invited to attend a State House function, and could not make it for the Senate grilling.
However, Sifuna maintained that it would have been prudent for Mbadi to first attend the Senate meeting before proceeding to the State House.
“When Kibaki was president, if there was a matter before Parliament and another before State House, the precedent was that you come and attend to the matters before the House first,” he stated.
