Senators will accord Kitui residents an opportunity to petition the Senate on any nagging issues affecting them.
Speaker Ken Lusaka on Wednesday said this will happen when the Senate holds its second mashinani session in Kitui on September 16-20. The first one took place in Uasin Gishu last September.
Lusaka spoke to journalists outside the Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu’s office after meeting her. The meeting was attended by Kitui MCAs led by speaker George Ndotto.
Lusaka had led three senators James Orengo, Mutula Kilonzo Junior and Irungu Kang’ata, who are members of the Senate Business Committee, to assess the situation in Kitui in preparation for the session.
The sessions accord senators an opportunity to interact with residents in the counties, the Speaker said.
“We shall be focusing not only on issues of Kitui but counties of the region like Makueni and Taita Taveta. If there are any petitions wananchi would want the Senate to address, we will give them an opportunity to do that."
Lusaka said the Senate was aware of and ready to intervene to resolve the budget stalemate dogging the county executive and assembly.
“The session will be a good opportunity to get into it [stalemate] and find out what is happening. We would want a very good working relationship between the assembly and the executive, ” Lusaka said.
He attributed the hitch to the assembly wanting to mutilate and alter the budget provided by the executive "thus frustrating the governor's vision".
“If it is completely interfered with, it makes it very difficult for the governor to realise what they want to do. I would try to advise the assembly to try as much as possible to keep to what has been given to them by the executive because they are the implementers,” he said.
The stalemate arose from Ngilu's rejection of the Sh11.5 billion 2019-20 budget after MCAs made alterations and removed funding to her pet Kitui County Textile Centre and a multi-million ballast crusher projects.
Edited by R.Wamochie
