All focus has been on Parliament since Thursday as the National Assembly Committee on Appointments, chaired by Speaker Moses Wetangula vets President William Ruto's Cabinet Secretary nominees.
Vetting started after the expiry date of submission of memoranda from members of the public, paving the way for the exercise that comes to an end on Sunday.
According to a statement from speaker Wetang'ula, the committee had received over 1300 submissions by Thursday morning.
He noted that 187 of the submissions were in the form of the affidavits contemplated under section 6(9) of the Act.
The remaining submissions either generally oppose the appointment of one or more nominees, are repetitive, support the nominees or are unrelated to the process, Wetang’ula said.
Wetang’ula noted that there are Kenyans who submitted applications for appointment as Cabinet Secretaries in the submissions.
“I want to assure the Kenyan public that the Committee on Appointments shall thoroughly scrutinise each submission made with regard to the approval hearings,” he said.
Interior CS nominee Kithure Kindiki was the first to take the hot seat at 8 am on Thursday.
Others who were vetted on the same day were Debra Mlongo (Health), Alice Wahome (Lands), Julius Migos Ogamba (Education) and Roselinda Soipan Tuya (Defence).
Lined up for Friday were Andrew Mwihia (Agriculture), Aden Duale (Environment, Eric Muuga (Water), Davis Chirchir (Transport) and Margaret Ndung’u (ICT).
On Saturday, John Mbadi (Treasury), Salim Mvurya (Trade), Rebecca Miano (Tourism), Opiyo Wandayi (Energy) and Kipchumba Murkomen (Sports) faced the committee in that order.
The final day of the vetting has seen Hassan Joho (Mining), Alfred Mutua (Labour) Wycliffe Oparanya (Cooperatives), Justin Muturi (Public Service) and Stella Lang’at of (Gender) facing the Wetang’ula-led committee.
As vetting continues, it emerged that the first five nominees have a combined net worth of roughly Sh2.5 billion.
Of particular concern was how the net worth of nominees who were in the previous Cabinet changed over the last 20 months.
The majority said they acquired their wealth from businesses, savings, assets and salary income.
Ogamba (Education) told the committee that he is worth Sh790 million, money he acquired from his law firm, land, tea, trees, farm equipment and vehicles.
The 57-year-old Nairobi University graduate has practised Law for 31 years and currently is the board chairman of the Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC (KenGen).
Kindiki told the committee he was able to grow his wealth to Sh694 million from Sh544 million he quoted two years ago.
Wahome, whose net worth was Sh218 million in 2022, had grown her wealth to Sh327 million.
Tuya on the other hand had a net worth of Sh156 million which has grown to Sh243 million during the same period.
Mlongo quoted Sh455 million, a combined net worth with her spouse.
The nominees have been appearing before the National Assembly’s Committee on Appointments to be vetted in accordance with section 8 of the Public Appointments (Parliamentary Approval) Act of 2011 which provides that, the Committee to which such nomination is referred shall consider the matter and table a report in the House within 28 days.
