• Majority leader says legislators would have been recalled for special sitting next week.
• Some MPs allied to Deputy President William Ruto are demanding that the President convenes a Parliamentary Group meeting
MPs have postponed their planned recess to allow President Uhuru Kenyatta to deliver his State of the Nation address on April 4.
The President will address a joint sitting of the Senate and the National Assembly and the Senate next week on Thursday.
The MPs were expected to break for the short recess on Thursday, but Majority leader Aden Duale said the break has been moved to next week.
“House Business Committee resolved to extend the sitting to carter for the crucial business that ought to be concluded before the short recess which is the address of the President in accordance with the Constitution,” Duale said.
The Garissa Township MP said legislators would have been recalled for a special sitting next week if they were to proceed on recess as earlier planned.
“We would have come for special sitting for two days but that would have been cumbersome because some of us need to go to their constituencies to meet the electorate,” he said.
MPs will go on recess immediately after the President’s address and resume on April 23.
We would have come for special sitting for two days but that would have been cumbersomeMajority Leader Aden Duale
The Constitution provides that the President addresses a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament once every year to update legislators on the plans and progress of the implementation of government programmes.
Already, some MPs allied to Deputy President William Ruto are demanding that the President convenes a Parliamentary Group meeting of Jubilee legislators to iron-out "burning matters."
Duale said the changes have affected the time that MPs were supposed to move for the long recess. The long recess will now start on May 10 to June 10, instead of May 3 to June 3.
He said the extended sittings will allow for the tabling of a report on the vetting of Inspector General of Police nominee Hilary Mutyambai. He is expected to be vetted by a joint committee on Administration and National Security and that of the Senate on National Security, Defence and Foreign Relations.
The report will be tabled on April 2.