Balala joins backbench in new role

Former Tourism minister Najib Balala Thursday formally joined the backbench in Parliament when he was picked to sit in a parliamentary committee.

The House approved Mr Balala’s appointment to the Labour and Social Welfare Committee.

Mr Balala joins the House team to replace Adan Keynan who quit the committee for unexplained reasons. This is the only committee that Mr Balala, an ODM MP, has been let to join, even though some MPs, like Mr Keynan, sit in more than one committee.

Mr Balala (Mvita) has fallen out with ODM’s leader Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Yusuf Hassan (Kamukunji) was a key beneficiary of Eugene Wamalwa’s elevation to the Ministry of Justice over a month ago. The Kamukunji MP was picked to join two committees, on which Mr Wamalwa sat in his days in the backbench.

Mr Yusuf, a PNU MP, joins the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee, and the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.

Former assistant minister Harun Mwau will also join the Local Authorities and Fund Accounts Committee to replace Jamleck Kamau, who also joined the Cabinet as the Minister of Nairobi Metropolitan Development.

Charles Nyamai (Kitui West) also joined two House committees. Although he has been in the backbench, it is not clear why he was not in any of the committees. He has been approved to sit in the Labour and Social Welfare Committee to replace Gideon Konchella, who, like Mr Keynan, resigned from the committee.

Mr Nyamai will also sit in the Speaker’s Committee to replace Peter Kenneth.

Finance minister Robinson Githae has also been picked to sit in the Speaker’s Committee, because he is in charge of the country’s purse strings.

He replaces Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, who quit the position at the helm of the Treasury because of charges of crimes against of humanity he is facing at the International Criminal Court (ICC).