Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna was embroiled in a heated exchange with his Tana River counterpart Danson Mungatana on a live Citizen TV interview on Thursday, February 1.
The heated exchange started when Sifuna referred to President William Ruto while explaining his decision to skip his State of the Nation Address in parliament.
Sifuna's words rattled Mungatana who injected quickly accusing the Nairobi Senator of demeaning the Head of State on live TV.
"My brother Mungatana was trying to paint a picture of us in the opposition as people who don't like to participate in debates. And he's trying to conflate my decision not to sit there and listen to Ruto's remarks during the presidential debate," Sifuna said.
Read More
In another rebuttal, Mungatana accused Sifuna of defying parliament's code of speech.
"No. Let's be parliamentary," Mungatana said.
"We are not in parliament, how can we be parliamentary? We're on TV. Kingi is not here to protect you... This is not your show, it is his (Trevor Ombija) show let him be the one to tell me what I can say or not," Sifuna responded.
Mungatana went on to allege that according to the Pokomo culture, Sifuna was crossing the line by calling out people older than him in such a manner.
However, Sifuna hit back at Mungatana insisting that he was not bound by the Pokomo culture and that he was exercising his right of speech.
"Talk with respect Sifuna. This is not an ODM rally. You can't come here and start name-calling the president. You can't say the president is not saying the truth," Mungatana stated.
Dadaab MP Farah Maalim who was the third guest on the show failed to intervene as Sifuna and Mungatana traded barbs.
Besides the heated exchange, Sifuna implored the Kenya Kwanza administration to keenly listen to people's views instead of imposing the Housing Levy.
He alleged that the scheme could be harbouring graft which will soon be exposed.
