THE SENATE
Speaker Amason Kingi’s alleged bias, mistreatment of senators and budget reduction yesterday dominated Senate sessions at the midterm retreat.
Minority leader Stewart Madzayo (Kilifi) and his deputy Enoch Wambua (Kitui) set the tone for the high-octane meeting with hard-hitting speeches that exposed the Senate’s soft underbelly.
Senators have convened in Naivasha, Nakuru county for the 2025 Mid-Term Assessment and Planning Retreat ahead of the commencement of the fourth session.
They retreated into a closed-door session soon after the opening speeches, where they extensively discussed their welfare.
Not even Parliamentary staff were allowed access to the room during the session.
Insiders said senators vented their anger at the mistreatment, characterised by radical budget reduction that has nearly stalled committee operations.
In his opening speech, Wambua put Kingi at the receiving end as he claimed the Speaker has not been objective in handling the members and the House business.
The Kitui senator explained the mistreatment – being abandoned while outside the country and being denied facilitation for travel and operation of committees.
“This is the first time that I have seen senators being bundled into vehicles to travel as far as Dodoma [Tanzania] for official engagement, left there, then cars will come much later to pick them,” he said.
“There are issues that we can’t build consensus on. And that is the point that we must then look up to the Speaker to give direction to the House,” Wambua added.
Adding his voice, Madzayo pointed out that senators have been denied funds to carry out their duties, including transacting business in House committees.
“I have been in this Parliament since we started the Senate in 2013. I have never witnessed a situation where a senator uses his own money to purchase a ticket and goes to claim it later,” he said.
“We never had this in 2013. We never had this in 2017. It is a very bad precedent.”
Majority leader Aaron Cheruiyot kept off the thorny issues and instead challenged his colleagues to actively and passionately play their role of defending devolution.
But the Speaker, in his speech, admitted the challenges the Senate has experienced in the last sessions. Promising to forge unity, he asked members to come up with solutions to guide the House.
“The
budgetary allocation for the Senate remains a contentious issue,
adversely impacting Committees’
work,” Kingi said.