When parliament issues summons requiring high ranking state officers to appear before house committees for questioning, everyone expects total compliance given the legal privileges that come with these committees.
On the contrary such summons have been disregarded with impunity. These toothless committees are left with no choice.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i is not new in snubbing the house summons.
For instance, when the Senate declared to put on hold the registrations of Huduma Namba, they cited Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and his ICT counterpart Joe Mucheru failure to appear before the Senate Standing Committee on National Security, Defense and Foreign Relations.
The two CSs, who had sent their administrative secretaries to represent them, were criticized by senators among them Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja for snubbing Thursday’s summons besides the intensity of the matter.
Matiang’i has in the past snubbed several other summons with regard to national security.
The Committee was seeking answers from the two regarding issues among them why Parliament was not briefed on the intended registration before the roll out.
CSs Matiangi and Mucheru were expected to appraise the legislators on the National Integrated Identity Management System, following concerns raised by Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot.
The Kericho senator had also quizzed what justifies the registration process given the amount of personal data that will be collected from citizens.
Attorney General Paul Kihara is also set to appear alongside the two, to answer to Huduma Number queries.
The National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) is set to capture a person’s data: age, gender, level of education, marital status, place of residence, source of livelihood and others.