Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna was prevented on Thursday from questioning Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja on issues outside the day’s agenda during a sitting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Budget.
Sakaja had appeared before the committee to address concerns raised by the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority over procurement procedures and pending bills in Nairobi County.
The committee, led by Mandera Senator Ali Roba, had finished its scheduled programme and was set to adjourn when Sifuna asked to be allowed to pose further questions to the governor.
The Nairobi senator said the matters he wanted to raise concerned finances and were already public, even though they were not included in the order paper before the committee.
“You know chair, we are all senators and one day you may find yourself before a committee I chair while your governor is present. I am asking for special indulgence because the people of Nairobi expect us to question the governor when he appears here,” Sifuna said.
He said the appearance was a rare chance to demand accountability and that he should be permitted to raise the concerns under Any Other Business.
“I wanted to ask the committee to allow me to raise an AOB issue because the governor is here. It concerns financial matters, and if he is not prepared to answer, that is fine, but it is a matter in the public domain,” he said.
Sifuna said Sakaja could give a short response if he was not ready to address the questions in detail.
Roba, however, rejected the request, saying committees must follow established procedures and deal only with matters formally scheduled for discussion.
“Every committee has its own decorum on how it carries out its mandate. As chair, I have a responsibility to handle matters before the committee. I cannot allow fishing expeditions and side questions that I am not prepared to pursue now,” Roba ruled.
The committee chair said allowing senators to raise new matters without prior notice would disrupt orderly proceedings and deny invited guests a fair chance to prepare.
Roba added that approving Sifuna’s request would create disorder in committee work because the governor had not been notified of the issues the senator intended to raise.
Sifuna insisted that AOB was part of the committee’s agenda and said he had the right to introduce the matter.
“Surely, even if it is my first time in Parliament, you cannot refuse a matter that is on the agenda,” he said.
Despite the objection, Roba held his ground, saying matters of public concern could be handled later through the proper committee procedures.
He said the committee could arrange another session and formally invite the governor if the issues Sifuna wanted to raise needed further scrutiny.
“As far as the prosecution of the agenda before us is concerned, I would guide that the meeting be adjourned on the basis of the guidance I have given to PPRA,” Roba said.
“Governor and team, you are excused to leave,” he added.
Sifuna appeared disappointed by the ruling, shaking his head in disapproval as Sakaja smiled, stood up and left the committee room with his team.
The exchange followed another setback for Sifuna in the Senate a day earlier. On Wednesday, the embattled ODM secretary general was removed from the Senate Energy Committee chaired by Siaya Senator Oburu Oginga amid an ongoing dispute over the party’s management and direction.
Sifuna was replaced on the committee by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’. Unlike other senators affected by the reshuffle, he was not assigned to another committee, reducing his committee representation.
He now serves on only two Senate committees: the Senate County Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Kajwang’, and the Senate National Security, Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee chaired by Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo.
The latest developments underscore Sifuna’s increasingly difficult position within Senate committee structures and wider ODM leadership disputes, even as he continues to gain popularity as a vocal critic on governance and public accountability under the Linda Mwananchi wing.