CS Mucheru draws Senate ire for skipping summons

The Senate committee on ICT has castigated Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru after he skipped a summon to explain the controversial media shutdown that denied Kenyans access to information for ten days.

The CS was slated to appear before the committee to justify the government’s decision to shut down four private TV stations; Citizen TV, Inooro TV, KTN and NTV for transmitting live coverage of the controversial swearing in of opposition leader Raila Odinga on January 30.

Mr. Mucheru was also expected to explain the presidential order transferring the Universal Service Fund (USF)  from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) as well as what the government is doing over the dominance of the mobile industry by telco firm, Safaricom.

However Mucheru was a no show and instead explained his absence in a letter signed by ICT Principal Secretary Henry Mungasia.

The Principal Secretary said that Mr. Mucheru could not make it as Thursday is usually set for Cabinet meetings.

The letter also stated that the CS would also be unavailable for any meetings between February 19 – 26 and as such requested the committee to recuse him from the meetings in the stated the period.

Mr. Mucheru’s explanation angered the legislators who accused him of being contemptuous of the summon.

Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang blasted the CS saying that he should have sent the PS or his technical people if he was indisposed.

“The CS is contemptuous. Did he just realise Thursday is a Cabinet day?” posed an infuriated Mr. Kajwang.

“We want to know what they were investigating on the media houses that had been shut, who was investigating? What did they find? Who will pay for the losses suffered?” added the Senator.

The committee further ordered the Senator to show up before them on Monday, February 19, the same day he is set to travel.