National Assembly Minority Leader John Mbadi was on Friday forced to cut short his speech after MPs allied to Deputy President William Ruto booed him off stage.
The incident happened during the National Assembly retreat in Mombasa when Mbadi was making his presentations.
Alice Wahome (Kandara), Catherine Waruguru (Laikipia), Khatib Mwashetani (Lunga Lunga) among others immediately booed him in unison after he appeared to defend the recent withdrawal of some MPs’ security details.
The Suba South legislator noted that the Ministry of Interior was right to strip off the politicians’ security detail urging the MPs not to politicize the matter and allow the law enforcing agencies to do their work.
“What some of our colleagues are going through is not unique. Some of us have experienced that before and I ask members not to politicize this issue,” he stated.
It is reported that Deputy Speaker Moses Cheboi tried to intervene and calm the members but his efforts bore no fruit as Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, who was a guest speaker at the function watched in dismay.
Sources who spoke to Capital FM disclosed that the meeting was at one point forced to go into a closed-door session where Matiangi was expressly asked not to play with the safety of the MPs.
Days after some of the politicians’ security was withdrawn, Matiang’i came out to explain the circumstances leading to the changes, citing the implementation of reforms in the police service.
“The administrative work that is happening will continue. The CS, PS, and IG are not politicians. We should not read politics in everything but leave the police to do their work,” he explained.
Among the leaders who have had their security withdrawn include Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu, Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika and MPs Kimani Ichung’wah (Kikuyu), Kimani Ngunjiri (Bahati) and Alice Wahome (Kandara).