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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