Parliament buildings in Nairobi in this picture taken on June 7, 2024.
Hundreds of petitions opposing the nomination of Cabinet secretary nominees were rejected because some contained insults while other members of the public were asking for jobs.
A sample of the petitions seen by the Nation indicates that most Kenyans were just hurling insults at the nominees instead of presenting a sworn affidavit explaining why they were opposed to their nominations to Cabinet.
“I am qualified for this job of CS treasury, I understand economics better and will be glad if you can consider me for this position,” reads one of the memorandums.
“Please give me a job, here are my qualifications,” reads the other.
Other memorandums also just read “I oppose or I support” without giving any reasons.
Others also raised issues that had already been concluded by the investigative authorities and the respective nominees were cleared.
Another person also raised an issue about one nominee for a powerful position, stating that the individual, during his time as a class representative at the university, denied other students an opportunity to cheat in the exams.
Other memorandums were also just raising general concerns about the nominees but did not attach any evidence to prove their claims.
In such circumstances, the memorandum was just brought to the attention of the nominees for record purposes and if one wanted to make a comment on them, they were at liberty to do so.
However, not all the memorandums that were not accompanied by an affidavit but contained valid issues were thrown out or discarded. The issues raised in such memorandums were turned into questions which were put forward to the nominees during vetting.
Parliament received a total of 1,368 memorandums in total. However, 157 memorandums which were sent through emails were found to have not complied with section 6 (9) of the Parliamentary Approvals Act.
During the analysis, 32 memorandums were found to have no relation with the subject matter as some members of the public were requesting jobs instead of submitting their concerns about the nominees.
A further 17 memorandums received by parliament were found to be inadmissible since they were unsigned and not commissioned by law.
Kipchumba Murkomen, Hassan Joho and Aden Duale are among the Cabinet secretary nominees who received the highest memorandums opposed to their candidatures.
Mr Murkomen was nominated as CS for Youth, Creative Economy and Sport, Mr Joho (Mining and Blue Economy), while Duale was nominated as CS for Environment, Climate Change and Forestry.
Murkomen received 92 petitions, Joho 72 and Duale 69.
Home Affairs CS nominee Kithure Kindiki received 68 petitions, while David Chirchir, nominated as CS for Roads, received 58 petitions challenging his nomination.
Defence Cabinet Secretary nominee Soipan Tuya received 48 petitions while her counterpart for Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome had 40 petitions against her nomination.
Wycliffe Oparanya had 33 petitions against his nomination, John Mbadi who is the nominee for Finance had 31, Alfred Mutua (Labour and Social Protection) had 23, Education CS nominee Julius Ogamba had 21 while Salim Mvurya (Trade and Investment) and Rebecca Miano (Tourism and Wildlife) all had 19 petitions against their nominations.
Opiyo Wandayi, nominated for Energy and Petroleum CS, received 11 petitions challenging his nomination, Justin Muturi (Public Service) received 16 petitions and Health CS nominee Debra Mlongo had six petitions challenging her nomination.
Both Margaret Nyambura Ndung'u (nominated as CS for Information, Communication and Technology) and Andrew Mwhia Karanja (Agriculture and Livestock) received only one petition challenging their nominations.
