Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i on Thursday failed to appear before the joint parliamentary committee investigating the safety of the sugar being consumed by Kenyans.
Dr Matiang’i – who was to be accompanied by Government Chemist Ali Gakweli – kept the MPs waiting for over three hours to shed light on a report compiled by Mr Gakweli confirming the presence of impurities in the sugar.
All along, parliamentary staff kept assuring the MPs and members of the press that the two were being held in traffic on their way to Parliament Buildings.
Joint committee co-chairman Kanini Kega had on Wednesday told his team that the minister had requested to address them Thursday afternoon.
When it became apparent that Dr Matiang’i would not attend the session, the committee retreated to a closed-door meeting where Mr Kega and his co-chair, Mandera South MP Adan Ali, were put to task over their insistence that the two officials be present before the report could be discussed.
“We realize that we are being taken in circles using the CS as the scapegoat, but we have decided that we expedite the report,” a member of the committee said.
