Mr Muturi, who is the Democratic Party (DP) leader, backs Dr Ruto for the presidency in the August General Election, while President Uhuru Kenyatta has cast his lot with Mr Odinga .
While Mr Muturi blamed the Government Printer for failing to gazette his notice for the sitting, thereby giving it the legal standing, the DP’s allies claimed the government feared losing on the floor.
Mr Muturi had required MPs to return for a sitting to debate, among others, the controversial Huduma Namba Bill , approve a Sh9 billion defence pact with the United Kingdom, as well as approve additional allocations to the 47 counties.
Yesterday, before Mr Muturi cancelled the sitting, National Assembly Minority Leader John Mbadi, asked MPs allied to President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga to ignore it, saying it was unprocedural.
“I want to advice our members not to attend any special sitting and to ignore any further communication in regard to the sittings,” Mr Mbadi said in a statement.
National Assembly Minority Whip Junet Mohamed, another Odinga ally, was first to raise issue with the sitting. “How do we attend an illegal sitting? Parliament is where laws are made for Kenyans and it cannot be the first place to break the law,” Mr Mohammed said.
“The speaker should have just told us that he was calling for a Kamkunji (an informal sitting) to tell us that he is officially exiting Parliament so that he can campaign for the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) presidential candidate in peace, but not a sitting to discuss matters that will affect Kenyans,” Mr Mohamed told the Nation.
Mr Mbadi said while they have no problem with special sittings, procedure must be followed and there has to be proper consultations between the leaders of majority and minority.
But Mr Muturi rejected claims of mischief in convening the sitting, saying he was just exercising his powers in acceding to the request of the majority leader.
“The request for the special sittings was officially made to me by the Leader of Majority. I then considered and acceded to it in the normal manner. I am not aware of the other shenanigans,” Mr Muturi told the Nation.
Mr Muturi who has declared his support for DP Ruto, blamed the Government Printer for declining and failing to gazette the sittings.
In a notice to MPs, Mt Muturi said despite forwarding the requisite documentation to the printer last week, there was still no gazetted notice by yesterday evening.
Without the notice, it is not possible to have a special sitting as the Standing Orders stipulate that there has to be a gazette notice clearly stating the agenda and time of the sittings.
Standing Order 38 requires the publication of the Order Paper showing the business proposed to be transacted by the House at least 12 hours before the House meets.
The publication of an Order Paper for a special sitting of the House follows the gazette notice for the particular sitting.
“It is worth noting that the Government Printer has declined and failed to gazette the special sittings for reasons not explained to us, despite the requisite documentation being forwarded to his office in good time last week,” Mr Muturi said.
“In the circumstances Iam compelled to call off the special sittings to allow consultations by the Executive. In the light of the foregoing, this is to notify you that the special sittings of the House scheduled on Wednesday stand cancelled,” Mr Muturi told MPs.
The Nation has reliably learnt that President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga slammed the brakes on the special sittings after learning of a plot to use the opportunity to install a new clerk.
“What the President wanted passed in the special sittings is the County Governments Additional Allocations Bill 2021 to unlock the disbursement of conditional grants to the 47 counties following a court order, the Kenya-UK cooperation agreement and the Huduma Bill. But we have since learnt that there was more to that,” said the source, adding: “We are not sure about what the Speaker is trying to do and, therefore, we do not want to be part of that plan.”
The Nation has also learnt that interviews for the position of the Clerk of the National Assembly that were to take place yesterday did not kick off once again. This is the second time the interviews are being postponed.
This also formed part of the reason why the special sitting was cancelled as the PSC failed to have a candidate to present to the House for approval.
Sources told the Nation that the interviews were once again deferred as politics took centre stage on who will take over from the outgoing clerk, Mr Michael Sialai, whose term lapses by the end of this month.
The Clerk is not only the accounting officer of the National Assembly, but also the administrative head of the National Assembly.
The office holder oversees the day-to-day operations and affairs of the House. As such, each of the competing political factions is keen to have one who is friendly to them.
Garissa Town MP Aden Duale told the Nation that the government chickened out of the special sittings because it had sensed defeat of the Huduma Bill.
“We had properly mobilised our members and majority of them were already in Nairobi, we were going to defeat that Huduma Bill because it is illegal and discriminatory,” Mr Duale said.
Mr Duale, a staunch Ruto ally, claimed the Huduma Bill profiles certain communities and should not be allowed to be part of the country’s laws.
The Bill which was to come for consideration at the Committee of the Whole House seeks to establish the National Integration Identity Management System (Niims), a central database which government agencies and other entities can access in the provision of services to the people.
The Bill also proposes changes to the Elections Act, where the electoral commission will be mandated to use the Niims database to come up with a voters’ register.
The proposed legislation also assigns Huduma Namba issuance of legal identity documents, facilitates the registration of births and deaths, and promotes efficient delivery of public services.
Mr Duale also questioned why the government was in a hurry to ratify the Kenya-UK deal instead of leaving it to the incoming administration.
“Why would a government remaining with 26 days in office pass a ratification defence deal? Let us meet in the 13th Parliament,” Mr Duale said.
The Defence and Foreign Relations committee was expected to table its report today morning followed by debate in the afternoon.
Saboti MP Caleb Amisi said the manner in which the issue is being hurried raises a lot of questions.
Mr Amisi, who sits in the Defence committee, pointed out he is yet to see the report as he did not attend the last committee meeting due to nomination commitments and he was also not part of the delegation that went to London.
“I have seen in the notice we are supposed to table the report on Wednesday, but it looks suspicious. It’s a mystery to us why this matter is being hurried,” Mr Amisi said.
