24 July 2008
Nairobi — Speaker Kenneth Marende urged Cabinet members to streamline their operations in the House.
Should they fail, he warned, he would soon require the Leader of Government Business in Parliament, Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka to clarify how members of the Cabinet relate.
Mr Marende said he was concerned at the increasing cases of Cabinet members directing questions and points of clarification to the same Government that they serve.
Insecurity
"It is about time the Cabinet put its house in order. If not, I will soon be asking the Leader of Government Business to make a statement," he said.
Mr Marende was prompted to make the remarks following assistant minister Linah Jebii Kilimo's decision to query a statement that fellow assistant minister Orwa Ojode had made in response to a supplementary question by Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi.
Mrs Kilimo, who comes from Marakwet East which has witnessed cases of insecurity, wondered why Mr Ojode claimed insecurity in Igembe were not serious. "Is he (Ojode) in order to say that matters of insecurity are not serious when I come from an area which is affected?"
As MPs Kiema Kilonzo (Mutito, ODM-K), Gitobu Imanyara (Imenti Central, CCU) and John Mbadi (Gwassi, ODM) tried to catch the Speaker's eye, Mr Ojode responded.
"She is an assistant minister and we can easily solve what she has asked in Cabinet," he said. It was the second time in the day that Mrs Kilimo had directed queries to the Government.
In the morning session, she stood up and urged the Government to resettle her constituents who have settled in the Cherangany Hills Forest.
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