The grilling of Cabinet Secretaries by the select parliamentary committees and the whole house will now be televised. This is a turn around from the norms that were experienced in the 12th parliament. Currently, all parliament proceedings are aired on the state broadcaster. This locks out the over 40 media stations from accessing the parliament buildings. The State broadcaster KBC enjoyed the exclusive rights to air house proceedings. However the broadcaster has a very low viewership even low than some local media stations.
Due to this, Kenyans haven’t been able to follow the live proceedings from parliament. While amending the standing order to allow media houses to air the proceeding. National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula said that he is allowing the Media to full access the grilling events of the cabinet secretaries.
Under the Uhuru/Jubilee government.Parliament had standing orders that prevent CSs from attending grilling session that were called by the whole house. This is a rule that president Ruto wanted to change. He advocates for the amending of the standing orders in order to allow the grilling of CSs. The president is on record saying that any cabinet secretary works for the people of Kenya. They should therefore appear before the representative of the people to answer questions.
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Key elements in the minority side have however rejected this proposal. They are on record saying that the grilling will interfere with the independence of the legislature. The move to grill the CSs has been welcomed by the public. According to a kiambu based leader if the cabinet is grilled in Parliament then they a directly liable to the people as parliament might find it fit to impeach the non-performers.