NAIROBI, KENYA: An MP fell off his seat as he applauded his committee chairman over a ruling to censure a Cabinet Secretary.
Mumias West MP Johnson Naicca sat quietly and followed the proceedings of the House committee on Transport and Public Works. The team was probing the controversial sacking of the boss of National Housing Corporation.
When Naicca’s committee chairman Maina Kamanda (Starehe) said the Cabinet Secretary for Lands and Housing Charity Ngilu had erred and must be sanctioned, the MP erupted in joy.
“Yes” he shouted. Almost the same way Francis Atwoli, the secretary general of Central Organisation of Trade Union, does.
“Yes. That is very good!” he repeated.
“Yes, we must be firm as a committee when these things happen, Mr Chairman,” he said as he pumped his fist in the air.
Kamanda looked at him and gave him an opportunity to speak.
“Mr Chairman….” Naicca began, with passionate gesticulation, half-standing. Mid-sentence, his seat moved back, he lost his balance and he dropped down like a sack of potatoes.
Blame these new seats that Parliament has bought for committee rooms. The seats have wheels, and are very comfy. The floor has very smooth tiles. So any sudden movement that upsets the stability on the seat is likely to displace the occupant of the seat. That’s what happened to Naicca, who in his enthusiasm, forgot the little physics and down he fell. Talk about inertia.
He sat down there, under the table, for almost a full minute.
When he rose from under the table, Naicca looked at the chairman, then at his colleagues, then at the journalists. They were quiet pleading eyes.
Kamanda took the cue: “Which media houses are here? Please do not write that. You will find yourself in such a position one of these days.”
Well, it is not every day that an MP falls off the seat. They are only human!
