Edwin Sifuna Barred From Parliament, Speaker Explains Why
As a result of the ban, Sifuna will not be allowed access to Parliament including the offices, committee rooms, lounges, and dining halls.
Marvin Chege 
Senate Speaker Amason Kingi barred Nairobi Senator, Edwin Sifuna, from accessing the precincts of Parliament for three days.
As a result of the ban, Sifuna will not be allowed access to Parliament including the offices, committee rooms, lounges, and dining halls.
Sifuna was accused by Kingi of gross disorderly conduct by disrupting the speaker's procession during a previous session which featured Nominated Senator Veronica Maina, a member of the Speaker's Panel, along with the Sergeant-at-Arms, the clerk, and a police officer from the Parliament Police Station.
Speaker Amason Kingi addressing the Senate after his election on September 8, 2022. /TWITTER
The Senator was alleged to have heckled them, yelling "Shame! Shame! Shame!” to the procession, which reportedly triggered Maina to confront him on why he was heckling them, sparking a scuffle.
While ruling on the matter, Kingi deemed Sifuna's actions as out of order and disruptive to the parliamentary proceedings and moved to bar him from the Senate chambers for a period of three days.
“At this point that a verbal altercation between the two Senators ensued. Officers of the Sergeant-at-Arms and several Senators who were in the room intervened to calm down the two Senators and defuse the engagement, which would have otherwise resulted in an unpleasant physical exchange,” he said.
“Upon interrogating the report, I have made a determination that the actions of Sifuna in shouting as he did at the procession of the Speaker amounted to a disruption or attempt to disrupt the Speaker’s Procession.”
Standing Order 122 (1) highlights the instances in which a Senator displays gross disorderly conduct which include “disrupts or attempts to disrupt the Speaker’s Procession”.
According to the Standing Order, a senator will be ruled out of order if he breaks a set of nine laws including defying a ruling from the chair, declining to retract the use of un-parliamentary language, failing to declare personal interest in a matter before the Senate and persistently makes serious allegations without adequate substantiation.
Others include; deliberately giving false information to the Senate, voting more than once during a proceeding, failing to maintain decorum during vote division, demonstrating or making disruptive utterances against the suspension of a named senator and causing disorder during an address by the president or a visiting dignitary.
Speaker Kingi however observed that since Sifuna was a first-time offender, he deserved lenient punishment hence the three-day ban.
He, however, indicated that should Sifuna repeat his actions, he will be suspended for a period of 7 to 21 sitting days.
"I also direct the Sergeant-at-Arms to ensure compliance with the directive for the stated duration,” Kingi added.
