Pressure continues to mount on Trade CS Moses Kuria on Tuesday even as Senate begins debating a censure motion seeking to declare him unfit to hold public office.
Kuria has been under fire over his weekend attack on the media.
Various lobby groups including the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, have condemned the outbursts that threaten media freedom.
On Tuesday, Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna formally filed a censure motion to have the senators discuss the unbecoming behaviour of the CS.
Censure is a procedure by which Parliament can rebuke the actions or conduct of an individual.
A censure motion expresses disapproval or reprimand at particular actions or policies of the government and even an individual minister.
Sifuna said media freedom in the country is under threat if the remarks by Kuria is left unchallenged.
The Nairobi Senator wants Kuria reprimanded insisting his conduct indignities the office of the Cabinet Secretary.
"CS Kuria be hereby censured and be found unfit to hold an office of high calling of the level of Cabinet Secretary," Sifuna said.
The senator also wants the government compelled to distance itself from Kuria's utterances and not the official policy of the Kenya Kwanza administration.
“An attack on one media house, as history has shown in other jurisdictions, often leads to attacks on press freedom as a whole. CS Kuria, having established himself as the loose tongue of the government, may indeed be speaking the official position of his government,” Sifuna said.
"That an assurance be made to the media in this country that their freedom as enshrined in the constitution shall be safeguarded regardless of their opinions and views on national issues."
Sifuna argued that the media has been instrumental in the liberation and democratisation and should be jealously guarded for the prosperity of the country.
"Concerned that the CS for Investments, Trade and Industry, whose reckless tongue has now reached an unmatched level of infamy in the country, and whose divisive, abusive and demeaning rhetoric continues to cause consternation," Sifuna said.
Kuria has been under fire over the utterances with various media stakeholders, rights activists and government institutions calling out the Cabinet Secretary who is yet to retract his offending remarks.
The Trade CS on Sunday threatened to take action against any government official who places an advert at the Nation Media Group.
The attack followed an expose by NTV, a station under the group, where it alleged that Cabinet Secretaries engineered the drop in the price of edible oils, a move that made the taxpayer lose about Sh5.6 billion.
Media Council of Kenya, Kenya Union of Journalists, Kenya Editors Guild, Media Owners Association, Political Journalists Association of Kenya, Crime Reporters Association and Kenya Media Sector Working Group have all condemned Kuria.
In a statement released on Monday, KUJ Secretary general Erick Oduor said the CS has become a symbol of national shame.
"His reactions to media reports regarding one of the many scandals that have hit Kenya Kwanza administration within a span of 10 months are an embarrassment to Kenyans," Oduor said.
KEG President Zubeida Kananu called on the CS to issue an apology following his unfortunate remarks.
"Kenya Editors' Guild expects an unconditional apology from CS Kuria following these unfortunate remarks. Editors, journalists and all media practitioners expect assurance from the Kenya Kwanza administration that the sentiments expressed by Kuria do not represent the policy of the government, and the media enterprises will be accorded their space to execute their mandate," Kananu said.