TNA bigwigs fight over House seat

Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi (L) and his Kigumo counterpart Jamleck Kamau are locked in a battle for the leadership of the Energy Committee ahead of its elections next week. PHOTO/FILE  NATION

By JOHN NGIRACHU jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Friday, May 17   2013 at  22:23

Infighting has broken out in The National Alliance over the leadership of a National Assembly team.

Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi and his Kigumo counterpart Jamleck Kamau are locked in a battle for the leadership of the Energy Committee ahead of its elections next week.

With the deadlock between Jubilee and Cord coalitions in the House broken, focus in the National Assembly has shifted to the leadership of committees.

Elections in the Budget and Appropriations, and the Constituency Development Fund committees were held Friday and staff at Parliament said elections in the rest of the committees had been scheduled for next week.

With Jubilee commanding a comfortable majority in the House, a majority of the heads are expected to come from the alliance. This was evident in the Budget and CDF teams’ polls, where Mutava Musyimi and Moses Lessonet easily sailed through.

The real battle could be in the Energy team, where Jubilee has both Mr Kamau and Mr Linturi seeking to convince MPs they should sit at the top.

Committees have acquired increased significance because without ministers in the House, they are the first port of call for MPs whenever they have issues they want addressed. They are also a crucial part of the Budget preparation as they have the power to make adjustments to allocations after having the Cabinet Secretaries explain the allocations.

Mr Kamau is understood to be campaigning for the seat on the basis of having President Kenyatta’s blessings for the job, but Mr Linturi is adamant democracy must prevail.

“We can only encourage people who are interested in running for office to do so and those that are purporting that the President is in support of any candidate are trying to really do a misinterpretation of the Office of the President because the President believes in an atmosphere whereby people are given an opportunity to elect the leaders that they want,” Mr Linturi said.

It is understood that the Jubilee leadership had wanted Mr Linturi to contest the vice-chairmanship of the Public Investments Committee, which he headed in the last Parliament, but he is unwilling.
Departmental Committees have until Thursday next week to submit their reports on the Budget estimates tabled in the House on May 2 to the Budget Committee.

Yesterday, Budget Committee chairman Musyimi was uncertain whether that deadline would be met, even as he admitted “time is not on our side.” “What can be done will be done,” he said. “Those other committees must be constituted.”