Report on cabinet nominees ready as fate of two unknown

May 13th 2013 
By Geoffrey MosokuNairobi, Kenya: President Uhuru Kenyatta will appoint his first Cabinet Tuesday if Parliament approves all or some of his 16 nominees after the confirmation hearing by the National Assembly Tuesday afternoon.
By Monday evening, the House Committee on Appointments, which vetted the nominees for Cabinet Secretary, had reportedly cleared all but two of the nominees.
The committee chaired by National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, which will table its report in the House this afternoon for debate and approval or rejection, was agonising over the fate of two nominees.
These are Davis Chirchir, the nominee for Energy and Petroleum, and Phyllis Kandie (East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism). By the time of going to Press, the committee members had not arrived at a conclusion.

Instructively, a stalemate, either in the committee or the House, will not prevent the President from formally appointing the Cabinet.
Section 9 of the Public Appointments (Parliamentary Approval) Act states: “If, after expiry of the period for consideration Parliament has neither approved nor rejected a nomination of a candidate, the candidate shall be deemed to have been approved.”
Standing Order 45 on approval of public appointments provides that the Committee shall, unless otherwise provided in law, table its report within 14 days of the date on which the notification was received.
Since President Uhuru submitted the list of nominees to the National Assembly on April 29, the Committee must submit its report to the House latest Tuesday.
Monday, Speaker Muturi warned that any disagreement by the committee or failure by Parliament to debate the names and approve or reject them, would give the President a leeway to appoint them by midnight.
“Parliament faces a strict deadline of either approving or rejecting these names by midnight of 14th of May failure to which the individual will stand appointed,” Muturi added.
Sources said the MPs especially from the opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) demanded that the two nominees should not be approved for appointment.
The heated debate saw some TNA MPs also expressing their discomfort with the nomination of Chirchir.
In his CV the nominee had named Ruto among his referees.
During the public vetting, Chirchir was questioned over his work at the defunct Interim Independent Electoral Commission and the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation.
MPs questioned him over the handling of the pension fund for 33,000 employees of the corporation before it was restructured in the 1990s and most of the workers retrenched.
Chirchir told the members he had nothing to do with the payments because he was the general manager in charge of information technology and only facilitated the setting up of the fund. Those opposed to Chirchir’s nomination argued he did not give a satisfactory explanation over the reservations raised against him.
A section MPs also questioned his role in politics and particularly the last General Election.
Some MPs wanted Kandie blocked on grounds that she did not impress when she appeared before the committee at the KICC.
Reach compromise
However, the Government side reportedly keen not to embarrass the President by rejecting any of the nominees, insisted all the 16 nominees are cleared for approval by Parliament Tuesday when the report is tabled, leading to a standoff.
On Sunday, the 28-member committee led by Speaker Justin Muturi met from 5pm to almost midnight but failed to agree. Monday the team began it session in the morning and by mid-morning they broke into caucuses of mainly Jubilee and CORD allied MPs as they struggled to reach a compromise.
By 5pm last evening, another source intimated that the CORD MPs were willing to negotiate on the male nominee but could not back down on the female nominee on grounds that even the public witnessed her dismal performance during the vetting session.
Approving her name, according to some of those opposed to her would expose the committee to accusations of overseeing a sham exercise as the nominee failed to impress the committee. “She totally failed the interview and members of the public will not take this committee seriously if we allow her to pass the test,” an MP said.
The committee met at the Windsor Golf and Country Club in Nairobi, to compile the report.
A member of the vetting committee who requested anonymity because House rules bar discussion of the report in the media without authority said:  “It was strange the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission cleared all the candidates arguing it had no adverse issues with any of the nominees.”
It now remains to be seen what fate will befall the duo when the final report is made public amid massive lobbying to have the entire list endorsed. 
Under the House rules, MPs of the committee can resort to voting on any contentious issue and pass the vote by a simple majority. 
The report of the committee will be debated in Parliament, with the House reserving the right to approve, reject or amend the contents of the recommendations. 
Parliament can also end up voting on the report with a simple majority carrying the day. Majority Leader Aden Duale will table the Committee’s report on the nominees this afternoon for consideration.