Irungu Kang’ata, the Murang’a senator has revealed ousted Senate Majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen and Majority Whip Susan Kihika refused to honour summons by the Jubilee Party to defend themselves.
Murkomen and Kihika were ousted from their positions in the Senate on Monday, May 11, and replaced by Senator Samuel Poghisio and Kang’ata respectively.
Speaking to Citizen TV on Monday, the newly appointed Majority Whip said the two had been opposing President Uhuru Kenyatta in the Senate instead of advocating for his agenda. He said they had been summoned to explain themselves but failed to do so and action had to be taken against them.
“The two have been acting against interest of the party, for instance Senator Murkomen recently tweeted a message saying that parliament is dead because the executive seems to have manipulated parliament. We had to take action, they were given the allegations against them, they were informed of the charges against them and asked to come before the committee to explain themselves but they refused to come to give their side of the story,” said Kang’ata.
According to Kang’ata, the Monday meeting at State House was meant to allow the two leaders to explain themselves but instead of attending they went around mobilising other leaders not to attend.
He cited several instances of subordination against the president as exhibited by Murkomen including the most recent one where the majority leader opposed Uhuru’s move to take over Nairobi county.
The Murang’a senator dismissed claims the number of people who attended the meeting did not meet the minimum threshold required to initiate such changes.
“We shall be giving evidence to show that we followed all laid down procedures in holding the meeting. We had twenty senators and we have their signatures, we will give the evidence today,” said Kang’ata on Tuesday.
He further dismissed reports that choppers were sent to bring senators to the State House meeting saying those who attended are the ones who were willing to attend the meeting and were not coerced to attend.
