House censure on Kimunya stands

House Speaker Kenneth Marende has ruled that the censure motion on Trade minister Amos Kimunya over his role on the Grand Regency saga stands.

But, he has also ruled that it is within President Kibaki constitutional right to appoint and revoke ministerial appointments.

In his ruling, he told the House to use their institutional mechanisms to stamp its authority.

MPs are likely to frustrate Bills brought by Mr Kimunya and his assistants.

"This House is going to deal with Mr Kimunya as a minister, and this goes for all his assistants and Bills brought here relating to his ministry," said Mr Martin Ogindo (Rangwe, ODM) during the debate of the report by the House's Finance Committee indicting Mr Kimunya.

The Speaker was responding to demands sought by Dr Bonny Khalwale (Ikolomani, New Ford Kenya) over the apparent defiance shown by the Executive in re-appointing a minister who was already censured by Parliament.

Dr Khalwale, who is also the chair of the Public Accounts Committee, had asked the Speaker to interpret the re-appointment of Mr Kimunya with regard to the fact that the former minister had not been cleared by the House.

The Ikolomani MP had argued that it was wrong for Mr Kimunya to be re-appointed when the House was yet to discuss the report by the Finance Committee.

"I am not persuaded by the view that operations of the Executive, including the appointment or removal of ministers can be suspended indefinitely for the reason only that the House has not yet debated its own report," the Speaker ruled.

However, while discussing the report on the floor of the House, MPs said it would be important for "someone to take responsibility" for the secrecy and deception that surrounded the sale.

Mr Marende said the Executive ought to have considered the recommendations of the House, before re-appointing Mr Kimunya, since Parliament "gives voice to the sovereign will of the Kenyan people."

"It is to be expected that the executive would think long and hard before taking any action that flies in the face of an unequivocal pronouncement of this House on such an important matter," Mr Marende said.

Instead, the Speaker proposed, that before the re-appointment the Executive should instead have persuaded the MPs to rescind the censure motion.

Besides, the Speaker said that there was no constitutional crisis but a "celebration of the functioning of our Constitution."

"I hold the view that the health of any democracy is best gauged when its core principles are put to test," he said.

Parliament had passed a censure motion against Mr Kimunya, then Finance minister, for his role in the controversial sale of the Grand Regency Hotel (now Laico Regency) and in effect said it had no confidence in him.

The National Assembly Speaker also cautioned the Executive against ignoring MPs decisions.

But even as Mr Marende warned of dangers that could be associated with such decisions, he ruled that Parliament could not stop the re-appointment of Trade minister Amos Kimunya into the Cabinet.

He said the power of appointing ministers lay with the President and was clearly stated so in the Constitution.

"The Executive is at liberty, if it is so inclined, to ignore the wishes of this House and proceed with the exercise of its constitutional functions without taking heed of the proceedings and decisions of this House in as far as censure motion is concerned."

However, he warned President Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and other ministers that Parliament, as an arm of the Government, had adequate ammunition to respond to the challenges that were thrown at its feet by the Executive.

"But if the Executive chooses to act in a manner inconsistent with a subsisting decision of this House, it must know that it does so at its own peril. This House has at its disposal adequate constitutional and statutory mechanisms to respond to a challenge to its authority," he said.