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Separate My Private Life From My Official Duties. I Also Have The Right To Express Myself, Muturi.

Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi has asked Kenyans especially those in the opposition to learn to separate official duties from his personal life. He said that, he too, had a life outside the precincts of Parliament and official duties as the speaker of The National Assembly, and people should respect his personal view on certain issues as an individual.

Speaking in Riandegwa ACK Church in Kagundui-ni, Murang’a County, Muturi said that as the speaker, he executed his duties professionally devoid of party affiliations or discriminating any member of the house due to their gender, age or religious inclinations.

He added that when one was assigned to a particular responsibility of power, they should be impartial and neutral in their excursion of their decisions which he said, he did diligently. He said that in Parliament, especially, all what the members did was pure politics as they did it as per their political inclinations.

“As the speaker, I have no control of what they say or decide as in the end of it all, it is their vote that counts. My duty is simply to maintain order and ensure that they work within the boundaries of parliamentary limits. Mine too is to ensure that I balance their contributions in the house by distributing it amongst the political parties, gender and other interest groups in the house,” he explained.

Otherwise, Muturi said that as a human being, he was entitled to his own personal view on matters relating to how governance was undertaken.

“When I express my opinion, there are people who don’t understand. They say that as the speaker I am not supposed to express my views on certain issues. But surely, what kind of human being will I be without being myself. So, when I get out of the official chair, I must be allowed to express myself on topical national issues. This is (just) politics, which is expected.”

He said that he was entitled to place his personal views, just as all other Kenyans, on the replacement of the IEBC commissioners whose responsibility, he added, should not be bestowed on the politicians. He pointed out that if Kenyans were serious about having a credible electoral body, the mandate to have that should be given to religious bodies.

“If I say for instance, if we want to have a credible body (IEBC), let’s remove politicians and involve the religious community. When the politicians say that they want parties to select their own representatives, aren’t they appointing their own to the IEBC?” he said.

He added that to improve IEBC, the constitution demanded that there was a parliamentary process and there was no other way about it.

On the issue of the students’ unrest, Muturi blamed the leaders whom he said portrayed the wrong model especially when they misbehaved in Parliament and on the streets.

“What is it that we are doing wrong? The students are just copying the examples that we are setting for them. When they chant ‘Ni Haki Yetu kuchoma shule’, they are just demonstrating what they have been watching from us the leaders and their parents,” said Muturi

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