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The select committee chaired by Marsabit woman representative Naomi Waqo in its report said the allegations were unsubstantiated.
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Some seven members voted to clear Linturi with four members dissenting.
Image: File
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula rejected an attempt by Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi to have an impeachment report against Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi subjected to a vote.
Wandayi had pleaded with Wetangula to “undertake a purposive” interpretation of the Constitution and standing orders such that the House validates it regardless of the findings.
“That, whatever the decision of the select committee arrives at must be validated by the full house, that is the import of Article 152 (9),” he stated.
Wetangula was, however, quick to rule him out saying he had already guided the House in relation to the matter adding that he was not privy to the report.
“Wandayi, you are out of order in anticipating a debate. I did guide the house that I have been informed reliably that the report is ready. The report has not even been tabled, the Speaker has not seen it yet,” he ruled.
According to Wetangula, what the legislator was trying to bring to the attention of the house was “waterway under the bridge”.
He reminded the House that unlike the Senate where members can decide to prosecute the impeachment motion of a governor, or the deputy through a select committee or through the plenary, the provision was not available to the National Assembly.
“What is available in your standing orders, is to have a select committee which we put in place, that is where the minister appeared with his lawyer from what I was reading,” he explained.
He reaffirmed his directive that once the report is tabled and found to be unsubstantiated “it ends there, dead on arrival”,
“If the committee says the matter is substantiated then level two will be the house to deal with a fresh motion. That is what the law says,” Wetangula stated.
The select committee chaired by Marsabit woman representative Naomi Waqo in its report said the allegations were unsubstantiated.
Waqo said that the majority of the members found the allegations against the CS as unsubstantiated.
Some seven members voted to clear Linturi with four members dissenting.
"Four members committee dissented and wrote the minority report," Waqo
She said that the committee was guided by the Constitution and the standing orders.
"The committee has the opportunity to sit and allow all the parties to present themselves," she said.