National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah speaking in Parliament/SCREENGRAB
National Assembly majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah has said members of parliament will not waste time impeaching cabinet secretaries anymore.
Ichung’wah said that MPs will only oversight their work but not participate in impeaching them.
While addressing the House on Thursday, the legislature called on appointed leaders who didn't comfortable working with the government in their respective offices to resign.
“Even those CSs who are in office today, we will oversight them, but we will not waste anymore of our parliamentary time to impeach a cabinet secretary. CSs are not people to waste our time with,” Ichung’wah said.
“The honourable thing for a CS who feels they have failed in their job or are too big for the current job they hold is to resign; they should not waste our time and that of President William Ruto.”
He, however, said that the President has the prerogative to hire, fire, and reassign the cabinet secretaries.
He called on leaders to respect their roles in ministries and state departments, saying there is no more important ministry than the others.
“If your motivation is extortion and deals in government, maybe you will find that this particular state department is better than the other ministry,” he said.
In 2024, Kenya witnessed a significant political development where key figures, including the second Deputy President, Rigathi Gachagua, faced impeachment proceedings and lost their jobs.
Others, however, survived.
In nearly all the cases, the allegations ranged from abuse of office to corruption and misconduct. Below are some of those who found themselves at the center of impeachment motions.
Gachagua became the first deputy president to be impeached in Kenya’s history.
A record 281 MPs voted in favour of the ouster motion sponsored by Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse against 44 who voted to save him.
In Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza’s case, MCAs voted to impeach her on August 24 for the third time.
Some 49 MCAs voted in support of the ouster motion, while 17 voted to save her.
This was the third time in two years Mwangaza has been impeached, only to be saved by the Senate for lack of sufficient evidence.
In May 2024, former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi survived impeachment after the special parliamentary committee determined that the grounds of the impeachment motion were not substantiated.