A committee of the National Assembly wanted to scrap the Senate. Johnson Sakaja was not on it

Did Mr Sakaja sit on a committee that recommended the Senate be scrapped?

“…. We have seen an assault of the Senate, coming mainly from the national assembly, and I thought when you shot the question to the only member of the national assembly on the stage today, he would explain to you because, I am aware that in fact it is the budget and appropriation committee of the national assembly on which he’s a member that passed a resolution to scrap the senate because in their argument it was too expensive to maintain the senate. So he is running for a seat that he wanted to scrap…”

Nairobi Senatorial Candidate Edwin Sifuna at Daystar University on July 21

During the Nairobi Senatorial candidates' Debate held at Daystar University, ODM candidate Edwin Sifuna accused Jubilee’s candidate Johnson Sakaja of trying to run for a seat he had intended to scrap while at the Budget and Appropriations committee in the National Assembly.

On March 27 this year, the committee, chaired by Mbeere South MP Mutava Musyimi, submitted a proposal recommending the Senate be abolished. This would help slow the rise of the large public wage bill, according to the committee.

Mr Sakaja has not been a member of the Budget and Appropriations Committee in the National Assembly. He is however, currently a member and Chairman of the Joint Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity in the National Assembly, whose mandate is to monitor and promote measures on matters policy and initiatives and works towards promoting peace and national cohesion. He previously resigned from the Committee of Finance, Planning and Trade

Attempts to scrap the senate are not new. In 2011, a section of MPs made suggestions to have the just promulgated constitution amended to remove the Senate, prompting the then Prime Minister Raila Odinga to condemn these attempts, insisting that the constitution should be protected.

INVESTIGATING AND REPORTING

In 2015, Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria launched the famous Punda Amechoka campaign, which was meant to collect signatures to effect the abolishing of the Senate and the Woman Representative seats so as to reduce the public wage bill.

The Budget and Appropriation Committees is tasked with the work of investigating and reporting on all matters related to co-ordination, control and monitoring of the national budget, discuss the estimates and provide recommendations to the House.

Mr Sakaja is not part of the Budget and Appropriations Committee that recommended the scrapping of the Senate.