County Woman Representatives Priscilla Nyokabi, Mary Otara, Wanjiku Muhia and Alice Chae at Parliament Buildings, Tuesday. [PHOTO: BONIFACE OKENDO/STANDARD]

Kenya: Cabinet secretaries will soon start appearing before the National Assembly to answer to questions sought by legislators instead of responding through departmental chairpersons.

The move to effect changes to Article 153 paragraph 3 and 4 of the Constitution and House Standing Order Part 10 comes a year after the elections.

This proposal by MPs to modify the Standing Orders has been necessitated by what they term the lack of competence by committee chairpersons in responding to questions raised on the floor.

The House will have a special session where the secretaries will respond directly to the House, however, they will not participate in the proceedings because they are not elected representatives.

Speaker Justin Muturi, who chairs the Procedure and House Rules Committee, yesterday announced that the changes envisaged are likely to take effect after the first break of this House session.

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“This will be in addition to those enunciated by the Leader of the Majority in the House,” he said.

He continued, “For the issues not answered on the floor, requests will either be forwarded to the relevant committees where CSs will appear to answer the queries or a written response sought from the concerned CS.” The current Standing Orders and the Constitution do not allow ministers to transact Government business in the chamber.

Not accountable

But since the committee chairpersons are said to lack the technical know-how to handle matters raised on the floor, the MPs are now considering changing this.

Muturi said if the committee effects the changes, it will accord the CSs a forum to explain any aspect of Government policy.

He informed the House that a task force acting under his guidance met on February 27 and March 1 to look into ways of actualising provisions of Article 153 (3) of the Constitution. “Paragraph 4 requires a CS to provide Parliament with full and regular reports concerning matters under their control. It is the view of the committee that the framers of the Constitution left it to the House to determine how to actualise these two paragraphs,” he noted.

The Speaker expressed concern with the manner in, which the chairpersons from various departmental committees responded to questions asked by the MPs. “Chairpersons cannot be held accountable for information given,” he said.