The Jubilee purge in the Senate continued on Tuesday with the party announcing changes which appear to push out lawmakers aligned to the Deputy President William Ruto from key positions.
The changes announced by newly installed Senate majority whip Senator Irungu Kang'ata, will see Ruto allies removed from the leadership of key committees and being replaced by perceived party loyalists.
In the changes, Senator Christopher Lang'at (Bomet)has been replaced at the House Business Committee by Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja.
Lang'at also lost his post as Education Committee chairman to Senator Alice Milgo.
Vocal Ruto ally Senator Samson Cherargei (Nandi) was also removed as chairman of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.
Meru Senator Linturi Mithika also lost his membership at the powerful Senate County Public Accounts and Investment Committee.
Linturi has been replaced by Senator Fatuma Dullo.
John Kinyua will also lose his position as the chairman of the Devolution Committee in the Tuesday changes.
Former Senate majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen will now be a member of the Devolution Committee.
The changes according to Kang'ata have been communicated to the Senate speaker Ken Lusaka for immediate implementation.
Last Friday, seven Ruto allies, all Jubilee members, voted to save the Tharaka Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki, with an overwhelming majority of 54 senators endorsing his removal.
Kindiki was removed for being disloyal to the President after he skipped a meeting called by the Jubilee party leader to change the House leadership.
However, Kang’ata said they will not undertake ethnic profiling in reorganising the committees but maintained that some those who voted against the motion will face the music.
“We shall not undertake ethnic profiling, hence some of those that voted against [the motion] may survive. We don’t’ intend for example to recall our PSC (Parliamentary Service Commission) commissioner. But some will definitely face the sanctions,” he said.
