Kiunjuri, Keter on the hot seat as CS nominees are vetted

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Cabinet seven Cabinet nominees on Friday underwent scrutiny by the Parliamentary Vetting Committee.

The first to appear was the nominee for Devolution and Planning, Mwangi Kiunjuri and he was followed by followed by Kericho Senator Charles Keter who was selected to the Energy docket.

Kiunjuri, who is nominated to hold the position formerly held by Anne Waiguru, said he resigned from GNU party in January 2014 and as such he no longer held a political leadership post that would have hindered his nomination.

He added that he would not treat people based on their political affiliation.

On his part, Keter outlined his plan to boost power production in the county, citing similar projects undertaken by neigbouring Ethiopia.

Keter and Kiunjuri were asked about how they planned to tackle graft in their respective dockets, an issue that saw their predecessors relieved of their duties.

The day also saw Mining Ministry nominee and Malindi MP Dan Kazungu almost miss the date on the hot seat due to mismanagement allegations of CDF in his constituency.The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) however gave him temporary permission to be vetted awaiting the outcome of the investigations.

The nominees faced a barrage of questions from the committee, chaired by National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, on how they plan to tackle the corruption.

Some nominees were however hard pressed to answer specific questions based about their backgrounds and professional capabilities.

When asked by National Assembly majority leader Aden Duale why he was sacked as an Assistant Minister in the Grand Coalition Government, Keter told the committee his removal was political.

“I was sacked because of politics. Because of our stand on the International Criminal Court (ICC) matters,” he said.

Cabinet nominee for Health, Cleopha Mailu, said the major reason why the devolution of Health services has failed to take off as anticipated is due to lack of concrete measures.

“There was no clear framework which was put in place when the health sector was being devolved,” said Mailu.

Mailu, who was the third to face the appointment committee, promised to engage the national and the county governments to reach an understanding.

Those vetted are Charles keter (Energy and Petroleum), Mwangi Kiunjuri (Devolution and planning), Dr Clepoa mailu (Health), Joseph Mucheru (ICT), Willy Bett (Agriculture), Sicily Kariuki (Public Service, Youth and Gender) and Dan Kazungu (Mining).

The seven now await the final report from the appointment committee which will be forwarded to parliament for adoption before they are sworn in.

The nominated Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries will also know whether they have been approved or rejected on December 16^th 2015.

The 24 PS nominees will be vetted by 10 separate committees with Muturi instructing that their reports be ready by the 14th of this month.

This comes after President Uhuru Kenyatta made a major Cabinet reshuffle in what he termed as re-organization of the government to ensure effective and efficient service delivery.

In the new-look Cabinet, several Cabinet Secretaries were sent home and new-comers brought on board as well as the number of Ministries increased from the current 19 to 20.