TWO CABINET NOMINEES DIVIDED MPS

 

 

 

A section of MPs during the first sitting of the 11th Parliament on March 28. 

Members of Parliament who interviewed Cabinet nominees were on Monday evening in a deadlock over approval of two of the 16 candidates.

Insiders at the meeting of Parliament’s Committee on Appointments said the MPs were divided over whether to recommend the appointment of Mr Davis Chirchir and Mrs Phylis Kandie over what was said to be integrity issues.

Mr Chirchir has been nominated for the Energy and Petroleum docket while Mrs Kandie is the nominee for Tourism, East African Affairs and Trade.

MPs who declined to be named discussing the committee’s activities said opposition legislators were adamant on Monday that certain integrity issues raised against the two presented a strong case for their rejection.

It is understood that some Jubilee MPs later joined their minority counterparts in suggesting that the team recommends to President Kenyatta, replacement of the two Cabinet nominees.

However, another MP at the Windsor Golf Hotel and Country Club where the committee retreated to at the weekend to compile its report said that position (the rejection) “was being revisited.’’
Insiders said MPs with reservation about Mr Chirchir cited integrity issues in his previous employment.

As for Mrs Kandie, the MPs were said to act on complaints from the Baringo Central district Poverty Eradication Committee who presented before the committee a letter and an affidavit complaining that an organisation Mrs Kandie headed failed to submit money channelled through it for payment to three local self-help groups.

In a letter and affidavit signed by Mr Jackson Kimutai Cheruiyot, the Kenya Micro Enterprises Promotion Programme then headed by Mrs Kandie as the “overall’’ director had been mandated, as a financial intermediary, to follow up on repayments and remit to the Baringo district Poverty Eradication Committee. This was around 2001/2002, he says.

He says that the money was channelled through K-Mepp which later wound up its operations and closed offices within Kabarnet town.

“By the time K-Mepp wound up, they owed the committee Sh2,310,000 in respect of Kapkelewa Women Group, Kabarnet Jua Kali Association and Kabartonjo Jua Kali Association,’’ states the affidavit.

He said investigations by the Poverty Eradication Commission last year indicated that “the money had been repaid to K-MEPP but not forwarded to the committee.’’

“We thus seek Mrs Kandie Phyllis to be accountable for her actions, omissions and commissions as the director of KMEPP in line with National Values, in Article 10 of the Constitution,” the Baringo Central District Poverty Eradication Committee said in a letter signed by Mr Cheruiyot.

The MPs are expected to table their report in Parliament on Tuesday. MPs will later debate and either approve or reject.
DAILY NATION