Messy House as Jubilee MPs clash

Barely a year into office, the new Jubilee parliamentary leadership is already reading from different scripts, casting doubts on the success of government agenda once the House resumes business.

This follows Senate Majority Whip Irungu Kang’ata’s letter to President Uhuru Kenyatta warning of an imminent flop of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) referendum drive in Central.

While the Murang’a senator has not shown any intentions to oppose BBI initiatives in the House, political pundits say his actions are likely to poison the minds of lawmakers and create hostility on the ground.

Mr Kenyatta put in place the new team after a bloody purge of perceived rebels in a bid to push his agenda, including the Big Four and the BBI.

In pushing out allies of Deputy President William Ruto from key House positions, the President wanted to tame lose political tongues on important national matters, which could be addressed without causing drama and attracting political attention.

Popularising BBI

Shortly after the unveiling of the BBI report, Mr Kang’ata and National Assembly Majority Leader Amos Kimunya declared that they were ready to set the ball rolling—popularising the document and passing laws required to implement it.

However, Mr Kang’ata’s letter which has drawn criticism from leaders allied to the President, is set to make the leadership go back to the drawing board, with just a month to the end of recess.

On the sidelines, legislators allied to Dr Ruto are keen to take political advantage of any fallout.

“If the Jubilee Party leadership calls for a meeting to remove Kang’ata, we shall attend the meeting and vehemently oppose his ejection. Instead, we shall remove non-party members and replace them with party members. It does not matter what he did to Susan Kihika and I, we shall oppose,” former Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen said, making reference to the Kang’ata-led purge of Ruto-allied parliamentary leaders.

Mr Kumunya has, however, dismissed Mr Kang’ata’s letter, terming him politically inexperienced and a publicity seeker. Mr Kimunya told Citizen TV in an interview that he is comfortable as the majority leader and that the door to his office remains wide open for consultations.

Different political parties,

“My experience in government tells me that you never stand in public or even on the floor of the house and say that I would like to tell the President ... you go and tell him in person. You can report what he has told you in public but you don’t go and advise him in public,” Mr Kimunya said.

National Assembly Majority Whip Emmanuel Wangwe said Mr Kang’ata was speaking as the senator for Murang’a and not as the majority chief whip.

“As far as I’m concerned, the BBI is on course and, at the right time, we will go to the people and tell them what it entails,” he said. Nominated senator Issac Mwaura said he is appalled by the turn of events in Jubilee.

“The different factions are treating each other as if they belong to different political parties,” Mr Mwaura said.

Nandi senator Samson Cherargei blamed former prime minister Raila Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)  party for the mess in Jubilee.

“How do you explain a ruling party de-whipping its own members and replacing them with opposition members in committees?” Mr Cherargei posed.

The reconstitution of the committees in June last year saw key allies of the DP removed from committees seen as critical to the realisation of the President’s Big Four agenda and the BBI.

Those who were removed include former National Assembly majority leader Aden Duale, former senate majority whip Susan Kihika, her counterpart in the National Assembly Benjamin Washiali, former Budget and Appropriation Committee chairman oKimani Ichungwa and Mr Moses Kuria, who was removed as the vice chairman of the Transport Committee.

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