MPs now want Juma sacked as Interior PS

What you need to know:

  • Committee chairman Asman Kamama said they may also ask the Public Service Commission to sack Dr Juma on the grounds Parliament does not have confidence in her as a public servant.
  • Laikipia East MP Antony Kimaru said: “Mr Kuria’s conduct demeans our stature out there to our electorate yet at no time did anyone receive any bribes,” he said.
  • In the National Assembly, one of Dr Juma’s supporters, Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, could become the subject of discussion after he said over the weekend that MPs were angry at Dr Juma because she had denied them access to money under the confidential expenditure vote.

MPs have asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to sack Monica Juma as Interior Principal Secretary.

The committee that rejected her nomination as Secretary to the Cabinet wants her removed from her present job.

Committee chairman Asman Kamama said they may also ask the Public Service Commission to sack Dr Juma on the grounds Parliament does not have confidence in her as a public servant.

“I think the President should bring somebody else. Huyu atatafutia mahali pengine (He will find another job for her). Parliament is telling him people have no confidence in her. He knows what to do,” said Mr Kamama.

“When Parliament loses confidence in a person, we will not tell him what to do because he knows what to do,” he added.

Asked what would happen now that Dr Juma is still in office, Mr Kamama said: “There is going to be a stalemate.”

He suggested that the Administration and National Security Committee approves the nomination of Major-General (rtd) Gordon Kihalangwa, who was nominated verbally.

“The President nominated someone to Interior. We’re waiting for that name to come so we vet that person. But we are not going to work with that officer (Dr Juma),” said Mr Kamama at Parliament yesterday.

Next week, he said, they would decide what to do regarding the Public Service Commission, the principal secretaries’ employer.

In this case, the committee may tell the commission that because she was rejected as secretary to the Cabinet, she is unfit for public office.

But speaking separately, Majority Leader Aden Duale said that because Dr Juma had been vetted when she was appointed Defence Principal secretary, the National Assembly had confidence in her.

“The Executive has its powers and Monica Juma can be the PS (at) Interior. Nobody has raised issues to the National Assembly, to the majority leader, to the Jubilee coalition. When that information is availed to us by the Committee on National Security, then the Jubilee coalition will take a position,” said Mr Duale.

Mr Duale said the vote last Thursday was specific to her suitability for the position of secretary to the Cabinet.

“If tomorrow she is brought for another position, even for a CS, she will be vetted by this House. She will not be rejected on the notion that she has been rejected before,” said Mr Duale.

He said she was only vetted because the Constitution requires it for the nominee to be secretary to the Cabinet and that she remains Interior PS.

“Nomination through the media is not a subject of vetting. That nomination must be sent to the Speaker of the National Assembly,” said Mr Duale.

In the National Assembly, one of Dr Juma’s supporters, Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, could become the subject of discussion after he said over the weekend that MPs were angry at Dr Juma because she had denied them access to money under the confidential expenditure vote.

Mr Kuria had said in a TV interview that MPs were bribed to reject her.

Laikipia East MP Antony Kimaru said: “Mr Kuria’s conduct demeans our stature out there to our electorate yet at no time did anyone receive any bribes,” he said.

Mr Kimaru said he had not stepped into Dr Juma’s office to seek “bribes” for harambees.

However, Mr Muturi informed Mr Kimaru that he could not sanction or “name” Mr Kuria for gross misconduct, since this had not taken place in the House.

“Prepare a substantive motion in three days which will remove the Speaker from this issue, and leave it up to the House to make a decision,” he ruled.

At the same time, an insurance company yesterday denied that Dr Juma’s husband, Prof Peter Kagwanja, is one of its directors.

APA Insurance Chief Executive Officer Michael Oduor was responding to claims by Kandara MP Alice Wahome that Dr Juma was rejected after the committee discovered that she had attempted to transfer the Sh6 billion National Police Insurance scheme from AAR to APA Insurance, where Prof Kagwanja was a director.

Prof Kagwanja immediately denied the claims.

APA Insurance stated that it was in the consortium of insurance companies that have been proposed to implement the National Police Insurance Scheme tender the MPs were referring to.

Other Insurance companies in the Consortium include CIC Insurance, Britam, First Assurance and GA Insurance.