President Uhuru Kenyatta is said to have given National Assembly Majority Leader Amos Kimunya a dressing-down over his dalliance with Members from Deputy President William Ruto’s Tanga tanga faction of the ruling Jubilee party.
Kimunya had accompanied speakers Justin Muturi (National Assembly) and Ken Lusaka (Senate) to a signing ceremony at Harambee House last Thursday when the head of state lectured him for keeping dewhiped Tanga Tanga-allied members in Parliamentary committees.
Also present at the meeting were Senate Majority Leader Samuel Poghisio and State House Deputy Chief of Staff Njee Muturi.
Sources who spoke to a leading local daily said that an ‘irate’ Uhuru questioned why Kimunya had retained some of the de-whipped Tangatanga MPs in powerful committees.
He specifically reportedly took issue with Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wah being proposed to the Finance and Planning Committee.
Ichung’wah, who was discharged from the Budget and Appropriations Committee, is among Ruto’s most vocal supporters in central Kenya and is viewed as a thorn in the flesh of Jubilee party loyalists.
Other Tangatanga-allied MPs from the region set to lose their nominations are Nyandarua Woman Representative Faith Gitau (Environment and Natural Resources) and Nyeri Woman Representative Rahab Mukami (Trade).
Gladys Shollei (Uasin Gishu) and Alice Wahome (Kandara) are also likely to lose their slots in the Committee on Delegated Legislation due to their opposition to the BBI process.
Tharaka MP George Gitonga could also lose his slot in the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC), which is crucial to the constitutional reforms process.
A pro-BBI team had rejected the earlier proposed memberships for key committees over claims that they were tilted towards the Ruto-allied Tangatanga group.
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