Jubilee takes leadership of all Senate committees

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party has taken 31 out of the 32 committee leadership positions in the Senate.

The National Super Alliance will only chair the County Public Accounts and Investments Committee in the elections that concluded Thursday.

Majority Whip Irungu Kang’ata who is also Murang’a Senator said that it was in the interest of Jubilee to win all the seats.

“We have achieved what we wanted, to ensure that Nasa gets zero other than the public accounts and investment committee chairmanship,” Mr Kang’ata, who has been lobbying to ensure that the jubilee agenda goes as planned, said.

ABSENT

The public accounts and investment team is a watchdog committee and the House rules dictate that it should be chaired by the minority side.

In the last Senate, there was an agreement that allowed the minority side to deputise committees chaired by majority and vice versa.

Senator Kang’ata was present in all the committees’ election meetings, on Tuesday and Thursday, monitoring the voting process and where a senator was absent, he invoked the House rules that allowed him the power to vote for the missing member.

He voted on behalf of Meru Senator Mr Mithika Linturi (Energy) and nominated Senator Ms Beth Mugo (Health).

MAJORITY

The Senate committees have a membership of nine with Jubilee enjoying a majority of five, making it easier to win the seats.

Among those elected chairman unopposed include Embu Senator Mr Peter Ndwiga (Agriculture), Nyandarua Senator Mwangi Githiomi (Land, Environment and Natural Resources) and Baringo Senator Gideon Moi (Information, Communication and Technology).

The others are Nyeri Senator Ephraim Maina who took Energy, Bomet Senator Christopher Langat (Education), Kiambu Senator Kimani Wamatangi (Roads and Transport), Mandera Senator Mahmoud Mohamed (Finance and Budget) and Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji (National Security, Defense and Foreign Relations).