Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna and his Tana River counterpart Danson Mungatana were on Thursday engaged in a heated exchange over Sifuna's reference to President William Ruto.
It all started when Sifuna remarked that Mungatana was trying to portray Opposition legislators as people who don't take part in parliamentary debates.
He said the Tana River senator was backing this up by his decision not to listen to President William Ruto during the 2022 presidential debate at the Bomas of Kenya.
"My brother Mungatana was trying to paint a picture of us in the opposition as people who don't like to participate in debates. And he's trying to conflate my decision not to sit there and listen to Ruto's remarks during the presidential debate," Sifuna said.
Mungatana then interjected calling for order on Citizen TV's morning show.
He asked that they act parliamentary, to which Sifuna responded saying that they were not in the Senate chambers.
"No. Let's be parliamentary," Mungatana said.
"We are not in parliament, how can we be parliamentary? We're on TV. Kingi is not here to protect you... This is not your show, it is his (Trevor Ombija) show let him be the one to tell me what I can say or not," Sifuna responded.
Mungatana insisted that Sifuna could not say that what Ruto said at the presidential debate was untrue.
He noted that in his Pokomo tradition, Sifuna cannot talk badly about elders or people who are older than him
"Talk with respect Sifuna. This is not an ODM rally. You can't come here and start name-calling the president. You can't say the president is not saying the truth."
Mungatana added that the host needed to correct the way they use language on TV, being a public forum.
Sifuna on his part insisted that he was not called for the Citizen TV debate under the Pokomo customary law.
The Nairobi Senator insisted that he must finish what he wanted to say, threatening to walk out if he was not allowed to, by the host.
The whole time, Dadaab MP Farah Maalim tried to intervene but his efforts were overshadowed by the two senators.
