Midiwo suspended from House for misconduct

Deputy Minority Leader Jakoyo Midiwo was on Tuesday suspended from parliament for four days for calling Jubilee MPs and the Judiciary thieves on September 5.

Mr Midiwo was ordered to leave the chamber, precincts, offices and services of Parliament and will forfeit his allowances and have his privileges and immunities waived for four days.

MPs voted 108-91 on the proposal to have him punished for the statements made on the day Cord MPs stormed out of the House, leaving their Jubilee counterparts to approve a motion to have Kenya withdraw from the Rome Statute.

Mr Midiwo is accused of saying: “If you are saying that Kenya is not a failed state, what is it? A country that, elections after elections steals elections, robs the citizens of their right and then it says it was a free and fair election, free where? The Judiciary may have been reformed but the occupants of those offices are the same. They are as bad as you. They think like you. They are thieves like you. That is who they are and that is who you are.”

Cord MPs reacted with fury after the Gem MP was suspended.

Deputy Whip Chris Wamalwa led the MPs as they followed Mr Midiwo as he left the House.

“We won’t stand any kind of intimidation,” said Minority Leader Francis Nyenze. “We have noted that members from the Cord side are victimised in the House. We are treated differently and we won’t take it lightly and we will fight for their rights in and out of the House.”

Mr Nyenze said it was premature to throw Mr Midiwo out of the House given that he was not given the chance to either substantiate his remarks or withdraw them in the routine manner MPs retract any statements they cannot prove.

They were also angered because when the matter was put to the vote by acclamation- the usual way of voting- they appeared to have outshouted the Jubilee side, which normally wins because of its bigger numbers.

Speaker Justin Muturi is basically now facing outright rebellion from Cord MPs, who have previously grumbled off the record about the way he treats them in the House.

While they have previously elected to discuss his conduct in private, it was telling that the press conference they called at the Small Dining Room- the media centre was closed on Mr Muturi’s orders- was chaired by Minority Leader Francis Nyenze.

He said they had gathered “to discuss the gross misconduct of the Speaker”.

The House resumed on Tuesday after a four-day retreat at the coast whose main aim was to smoothen relations between the two sides.

Mr Nyenze said Cord was outraged that the actions came just after the bonding session at the coast.

He added that “Cord will stand firm with any of their members whom they feel will have been unfairly treated.”

John Mbadi (Suba, ODM) challenged Mr Muturi to be more bipartisan.

“He is the Speaker of the National Assembly and not of Jubilee and he should behave as such,” said the outspoken MP.“Cord is disappointed with the conduct of the Speaker. He should reconsider his conduct and carry himself as a Speaker of the House.”

The Cord members, NNumbering more than 72 MPs, then went back to the chamber to discuss the high cost of living on a motion proposed by Mr Wamalwa.