MCAs jeer Moses Kajwang’ over English tips slur

What you need to know:

  • It took the intervention of Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen to calm down the MCAs.
  • Mr Stanley had also called for disbandment of Senate if it cannot support the MCAs.

The plenary session of the second day at the Third Annual Legislative Summit ended in commotion after Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang earned the wrath of ward representatives when he offered to provide them with English lessons to understand his position on the increasingly sensitive issue of the Ward Development Equalisation Fund Bill.

The statement did not amuse the ward reps who considered it demeaning and in a chorus, demanded a retraction and apology.

The senator refused, forcing a section of the MCAs to approach the high table in order to evict him out of the conference hall.

Before the pandemonium, Mr Kajwang had been the moderator of the session in which five panellists had discussed the topic Resourcing counties and devolved functions for optimal service delivery.

Homabay Senator Moses Kajwang during the Third Annual Legislative Summit. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Throughout the session, he paid tribute to MCAs, praising the level of capacity of the current crop of MCAs but didn’t seem to have a clear stand on the kitty that MCAs are now using all means to push for.

It was at this point that Nakuru Majority leader Stanley Karanja stood up and demanded that Mr Kajwang makes his stand on the bill clear. He further

“If you can’t to say what Kangata is saying (the bill) then there is a whole committee of the House that is dealing with the Bill. Go there and amend instead of giving us conditions,” he told Kajwang to the consternation of the conference.

Kajwang had said the senate will consider the “descriptive and prescriptive” effects of the bill before it is enacted which only confused the ward reps whose only interest is for the bill to be supported.

MCAS disagreed with the senator’s comment. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP


“If you need some English lessons on differences between descriptive and prescriptive that is something we can discuss later,” Kajwang said to jeers from the MCAs, who stood up and started shouting asking him to withdraw and apologise.

Mr Stanley had also called for disbandment of Senate if it cannot support the MCAs.

Mr Kajwang, however said: "When you disagree with a senator you do not say that Senate should be disbanded. Let us observe sobriety."

It took the intervention of Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen to calm down the MCAs.

"We cannot win an agenda by engaging each other in public. If we do not agree on each other let us use the right way instead of embarrassing ourselves. This is an embarrassment," said Mr Murkomen.