The National Assembly Speaker, Justin Muturi has called on government agencies to avoid taking each other to court over disagreements but instead embrace dialogue.
He said there was no reason for the agencies to waste taxpayers’ money paying lawyers when they could sit down and dialogue.
The Speaker spoke in the wake of a move where the Salaries and Remunerations Commission (SRC) had gone to court to seek orders barring Parliament from implementing the controversial house allowance for legislators.
Muturi said there was nothing so difficult about the allowances issue that could not be resolved at a negotiating table.
He asked SRC to withdraw the matter from court, saying Parliament was ready to engage the commission on the issue.
The Speaker was speaking at Siakago Day Secondary School in Mbeere North, Embu County, where he had earlier officially opened the school’s dining hall.
Muturi, who refused to speak on the rightness or otherwise of the controversial allowances, saying the issue was now a matter before court, said they will await the court process to determine a way forward.
The Speaker also failed to comment on a proposal by some Embu County leaders that he be selected to be Deputy President, William Ruto’s running mate in 2022.
The Nominated MP, Cecily Mbarire, Mbeere North MP, Muriuki Njagagua and Mbeere South MP, Col. (Rtd) Geoffrey King’ang’i said they will back Muturi to be the next Deputy President and said they expected the Kikuyu community, which other Mt. Kenya communities had backed since independence, “to return the hand”.
On the recent spate of killings in the country, the Speaker said there was need for the country to introspect and determine why there was an apparent breakdown in law and order.
He said leaders need to ask themselves if they have failed to inspire confidence in the youth, to a point where the youth were now resorting to extreme measures to resolve petty differences.
By Steve Gatheru
