National Assembly Budget and appropriations Committee members led by Chairman Ndindi Nyoro(right) Vice Mary Emaase(centre) and Flowrence Jematiah(left) addressing the media at Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, Nairobi on November 14, 2023 after their sitting on the budget estimations. [File, Standard]
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro was yesterday on the receiving end of the House leaderhip’s critism over his just concluded tenure as the Budget and Appropriations committee chairperson for implementing mega projects in his constituency which made his colleagues look ineffective.
The attacks, came on a day that the jostling for the chairmanship of the recently reconstituted committees reached fever pitch ahead of the elections slated for today Wednesday and tomorrow Thursday.
In a thinly veiled attack against Nyoro, the leader of Majority at the National Assembly Kimani Ichung’wah and his leader of Minority counterpart Junet Mohammed yesterday closed ranks to lead the charge against the embattled lawmaker.
Nyoro, who is considered to be a victim in an ongoing purge in the National Assembly against ‘fence sitters’ and former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s allies, has been serving as the House teams’ chair for the last two years.
Ordinarily, the transformation he has brought to his constituency through the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) would be a cause for admiration by his peers but not yesterday.
Without naming names, the duo of Junet and Ichungw’ah indirectly accused the Kiharu lawmaker of using his position as the chair of the Budget Committee to the skew the allocation of resources in his favour and his cronies.
The matter came up after Ichungw’ah rose on the floor of the House to move a motion on a resolution to sit on other days. He sought to have the House hold morning sittings on Thursday commencing 10 am for the consideration of the business relating to the Supplementary Budget estimates II for the FY 2024/2025.
He had also moved the motion to have the MPs proceed on short recess from Monday, March 17, 2025 and resume sittings on April 1, 2025.
“…It is immoral, it is unethical, and it is downright theft! We cannot have a situation where one county receives Sh12 billion while an entire region struggles with Sh60 million. How is that even possible?” stated Ichung’wah.
“This House will not sit back and allow a handful of MPs to allocate money only to their constituencies while the rest of the country is left begging for crumbs. We were not sent here to enrich ourselves; we were sent here to serve Kenyans fairly,” he added.
Ahead of the elections today, Ichung’wah also fired a warning shot to the newly recruited members of the committee.
“I want to send a clear warning. Any MP who joins that (Budget) committee thinking they will continue these bad manners should think again. We will not allow this Parliament to be turned into a marketplace for looters,” he warned.
It was however Junet who went all out on Nyoro.
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“Tell me, Mr. Speaker, what exactly is happening in Kiharu that we must all go and see? Has the Messiah come back there? Is there a new economic miracle we have not heard about?” Junet retorted.
“The Budget Committee went around the country, told people they had allocated Sh2 billion for public participation, then suddenly that figure jumped to Sh12 billion. And who benefited? Not the counties that were promised. No! The money ended up in the pockets of a select few,” he claimed.
Unrelenting, he accused previous members of the Budget committee of corruption and financial embezzlement.
“Let’s be honest with ourselves. Which MP here can build castles with their CDF funds? These things are happening because some people have access to ‘bigger money’…money that does not belong to them but to Kenyans. And they are stealing it in broad daylight!” he asserted.
Speaker Moses Wetang’ula also waded into the debate, calling on the MPs ensure equity, fairness, and justice in execution of their duties.
“ And for all of you who have been given the privilege to serve in committees, you are public trustees you do not represent yourselves; you represent the country. Because if members of a committee of privilege only work for themselves, how will a member who serves on the Library Committee ever do anything for their constituency?” he posed.
Wetangula added, “So, I want to encourage you and to the Majority and Minority Leaders please exercise your duties and responsibilities to ensure that this democratically elected House discharges its mandate to the satisfaction of every Kenyan in every part of the country. A person in Vanga, Lokitang, a person in Malaba, should not feel the need to sit in this House to demand fairness, because we all have a duty to discharge our responsibilities fairly.”
The development yesterday has now paved way for the elections to be held today for the newly reconstituted House teams. Chairpersons for the Departmental committees on Energy, Environment, Forestry and mining, Health, Labour and Trade, Industry and Cooperatives are set to be chosen beginning today.
Vice Chairpersons for the Departmental Committees on Education, Lands. Regional Development and Tourism and Wildlife are also up for decision.
The Standard has established that Alego Usonga MP Sam Atandi is poised to take up the chairmanship of the Budget Committee, ODM Nominated MP Irene Mayaka the chairmanship of the Regional integration committee, Seme MP James Nyikal the chairmanship of the Health Committee and Ikolomani MP Benard shinali as the chair of the Trade committee. The chairmanship of the Labour committee is yet to be decided upon.
This was after the former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua allies were removed from the helm of powerful committees and placed in other less influential ones.
Embakasi North MP James Gakuya, Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamucomba and Runyenjes MP Muchangi Karemba, who are Gachagua loyalists through and through were the first chairs of committees who fell on the broad-based government sword after they were de-whipped from the helm of powerful house teams and placed in other less influential committees.
Gakuya who chaired the Trade, Investment and Cooperatives committee was removed and placed in the Parliamentary Broadcasting and Library services, Wamucomba who held the reins at the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee (CIOC) was placed in the Member services committee while Karemba was yanked from the Labour committee where he was the chairperson and placed in the CIOC committee.
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro who had previously been considered a fence sitter following his move to abstain ion voting during the impeachment of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was also removed as the Budget Committee chair but retained as a member of the House team.
