Kang'ata to Wa Iria: It's not personal

Murang’a senator Irungu Kang’ata says he has no personal vendetta against governor Mwangi wa Iria following a heated exchange when the governor was summoned by the senate Public Accounts and Investments Committee last week.

Wa Iria accused senators of using the Auditor General’s reports to score politically, asking Kang’ata to ‘stop pretending’ that he was fighting for Murang’a people’s interests.

Wa Iria had been summoned to answer queries raised by the Auditor General in the year 2017 -2018.

But Kang’ata said it is his role to oversight the county government to ensure the funds disbursed are spent properly.

“Understand the role of senate. Those who drafted the constitution established the house because they appreciated that the county government needs someone to ask questions and keep the governor on toes,” he said.

The senator noted that the governor requires checks and balances to operate effectively.

He said as the senator, he will not shy away from his oversight work, as that is the reason the Senate was established.

“Failure to do that, there would be no essence of Senate. I therefore urge those who we ask questions to not take it personal but understand we are only doing our work,” he said.

Kang’ata, who was speaking at Kahuhia Girls High School, during a prize giving ceremony on Saturday also condemned the Chief Justice David Marag’s proposal to have the sexual consent age reviewed.

“I belong to the school of thought that sexual consent age should remain at 18 or even be upped to 22,” said the senator.

He noted that lowering the consent age would expose youngsters to preying by older people as they cannot make firm decisions at that age.

He expressed surprise that the Chief Justice, who is a Christian, made such a recommendation that would further deplete family values.

“As Christians, we must all uphold family values and that is not one of the ways to do that,” he said.

Maraga has supported calls by three appellate judges, Roselyn Nambuye, Daniel Musinga and Patrick Kiage, to have the sexual offences act reviewed, citing the high numbers of underage boys jailed for having consensual sex with underage girls, whose consent is deemed immaterial.

Maraga said instead of lowering the consensual age to 16 or continuing jailing offenders, judges and magistrates should be left to independently handle the minors who engage in consensual sex.