National Assembly Speaker dispatched to Mombasa to end a three-day stalemate

By Tobby Otum

National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula was forced to travel to the coastal city of Mombasa to end a three-day stalemate at an induction retreat for committee members.

Wetangula arrived at the PrideInn hotel and went straight into the convention centre where media were barred.

The speaker had time to crack jokes with journalists for a few minutes when he arrived at the hotel before being ushered in for a closed-door meeting.

After some hours Wetangula emerged from the meeting and referred journalists to the National government constituencies development fund (CDF) committee chairman Musa Sirma to get his comment.

Sirma told journalists the government has apologized to the legislators for the late disbursement of the funds.

He assured the legislators the arrival of the speaker had yielded fruits from the treasury.

The government has disbursed sh 4 billion with sh 2 billion each day and by next week a total of sh 10 billion would have been disbursed, he said.

The committee chairman applauded the move by the government saying it seemed next to impossible.    

Sirma, who was flanked by his committee members, said by next week each lawmaker will have wired between sh 30 million to sh 35 million into their respective CDF accounts.

He added they were far from where they were and at least needy students will start getting their bursary funds.

“We had staged a protest to ensure needy students access education in line with the constitution,” he pointed out. 

The committee chairman told journalists they have agreed the retreat will proceed as planned after the government was forced to intervene.

Ends   

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