Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Ministers warned over absenteeism



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Ministers and their assistants have been warned of tough sanctions for skipping Parliamentary sessions especially on Wednesday mornings August 10, 2011. FILE
Ministers and their assistants have been warned of tough sanctions for skipping Parliamentary sessions especially on Wednesday mornings August 10, 2011. FILE 
By JOHN NGIRACHU jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Wednesday, August 10  2011 at  16:11
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Ministers and their assistants have been warned of tough sanctions for skipping Parliamentary sessions especially on Wednesday mornings.
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Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim issued the warning Wednesday morning after ministers who were scheduled to answer questions failed to show up and had not asked to be excused.
“The Chair (reference for the Speaker) gets the feeling that ministers are too happy to get sanctions because they don’t want to be held responsible to Kenyans and backbenchers,” said Mr Maalim.
Members of the Executive are usually punished by banning them from transacting business in the House until they provide explanation for their absence, while backbenchers' questions are dropped.
The morning session was marked by the absence of most of those required to conduct the business, which in the first two hours usually consists of questions by backbenchers.
But the blame was not only on the government side as a large number of the backbenchers were absent without the appropriate apologies or late, some because of the traffic jam.
Mr Maalim warned that backbenchers are “sleeping on the job” by not only being late but by also failing to demand tough sanctions for ministers’ lateness.
Nominated MP Rachel Shebesh and Kisauni MP Hassan Joho were allowed to ask their questions after they arrived late and apologised.
Environment minister John Michuki stepped in to apologise for his Industrialisation counterpart Amason Kingi as Mr Maalim appeared ready to issue sanctions.
Internal Security assistant minister Orwa Ojodeh was asked to apologise on behalf of Agriculture minister Sally Kosgei, who was not available to give a commitment on when a ministerial statement could be issued.

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