•But this did not rub the senators well as Nominated senator Gloria Orwoba asked Sifuna to apologise.
•“When a woman comes here, Sifuna starts to demean women leaders because what he is doing is belittle women in this space. He needs to come here and apologise and withdraw,” she said.
Image: FILE
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna caused a stir in the Senate on Wednesday over his ‘kissing the behind’ remark.
The debate begun when Sifuna claimed that the Senators were not asking Health CS Susan Nakhumicha direct questions but instead engaging in non issues.
Nakhumicha had appeared before the Senate to respond to questions on the doctors' strike among other issues affecting the health sector.
“We are not here to worship the CS. We are not here to give stories. Mr speaker, we have few minutes and this is a national debate.. we are not here to kiss people's behinds. Limit the senators questions and let them be direct,” Sifuna said.
His remark caused a heated debate in the Senate with Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei interjecting Sifuna and asking him to withdraw his remarks.
“The Nairobi senator has had a habit of shouting at people. Have you noticed that he has been shouting and insulting people?. It is becoming a gross misconduct. He should be thrown out,” Cherargei said.
Cherargei said Senators have a right to ask questions.
“Why should you allow him say we are kissing people’s behinds? Our kisses are for somewhere else Mr Speaker. We do not kiss anybody’s behind. He must withdraw that statement. we know where to kiss. Can you call him out of order..” Cherargei said.
The Speaker was then forced to call the house to order and directed Senator Sifuna to withdraw his remark.
“Senator Sifuna, I would urge you to withdraw kissing whatever part of the body that you made so that we move on,” the speaker said.
But on standing up, Sifuna persistently repeated the words instead of withdrawing the remarks as he had been directed.
“I have the full range of vocabulary, I will withdraw kissing someone's behind and replace it with massaging the CS for health because that is what senators are doing,” he said.
But this did not rub the senators well as Nominated Senator Gloria Orwoba asked Sifuna to apologise.
“When a woman comes here, Sifuna starts to demean women leaders because what he is doing is belittle women in this space. He needs to come here and apologise and withdraw,” she said.
“When you come here you can’t just be thinking of sexual preferences such as kissing women behinds Mr speaker. This is out of order. He must not only apologise but also apologise to women of Nairobi and Kenya.”
Earlier, Nakhumicha pleaded with hospitals not to turn away patients with NHIF as the country prepares to transition to the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF).
CS Nakhumicha who appeared before Senators on Wednesday morning said the debt owed to various health facilities will be paid once the National Treasury releases the funds.
"I want to assure facilities that there is no cause and they do not need to disrupt services. Once they have provided services, their claims have been verified and reconciled, they are going to be paid," Nakhumicha said.
This comes amid reports that patients with NHIF cards have been denied services following the alleged failure by the government to pay at least Sh6 billion in pending bills.
According to CS Nakhumicha, the National Treasury is this week expected to release Sh8.5 billion to be used for settling of the money owed to hospital facilities.