Members of Parliament (MPs) are today set to approve all the 20 nominees that President William Ruto picked for his new-look Cabinet, notwithstanding hundreds of petitions challenging the suitability of some of the proposed Cabinet Secretaries.

Sources at the Appointments Committee which vetted the nominees painted a picture of consensus among the vast majority of members to clear the nominees.

This despite a split emerging within the committee over whether to clear all the nominees ahead of debate on the report today.

Sources who cannot be named for fear of breaching parliamentary rules, said some members had dissenting opinion on some of the nominees. Standing orders prohibit MPs from discussing matters before the House in public, otherwise known as “taking debate out of the House”.

During the vetting, the committee chair, Speaker Moses Wetang’ula, had revealed that they received a number of memorandums from Kenyans objecting to the nomination of some of the candidates.

Some of the nominees who had petitions filed against them included former Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho (Mining and Blue Economy), Wycliffe Oparanya (Cooperatives), Adan Duale (Environment) and Kithure Kindiki (Interior).

Wetang’ula said the committee received 74 memoranda against Joho, the highest among the nominees.

Joho whose net worth stands at Sh2.3 billion faced a number of questions touching on his alleged involvement in drug deals, his education credentials and past remarks claiming he can’t work with Ruto.

Oparanya whose net worth stands at Sh600 million was questioned over the Sh1.3 billion graft scandal he has been linked to which he claimed he has never been invited to write a statement on it.

Said Oparanya: “Nobody has come to take a statement from me. As I sit here, I also don’t know what I am being accused for because I am also seeing it in the papers.”

Duale who was vetted on Friday said that his net worth stands at Sh980 million an increase from the Sh851 million that he declared in September 2022 when he was vetted for the Defence minister position.

Kindiki who was vetted last week Thursday and whose net worth stands at Sh694 million dismissed claims that his tenure was characterized by human rights violations including killings of protestor’s abductions, and extra judicial killings.

The split in the vetting team was expected given that the Wiper Party had instructed its members to reject nominees who were fronted to the new look cabinet by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

Sources who sit in the committee revealed that among those who had voiced a dissenting opinion were the two MPs who sit in the committee, namely Robert Mbui and Stephen Mule.

Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka had two weeks instructed the duo to reject the four ODM nominees led by Joho, Oparanya, John Mbadi (National Treasury), and Opiyo Wandayi (Ministry of Energy and Petroleum).

But People Daily learnt that majority of the commitee members were of the opinion that the petitions raised against some of the nominees did not have compelling evidence to block their appointment to the cabinet.

The committee is expected to table its report this afternoon after which members will debate it and later vote on the suitability of each of the nominees.

“It is notified that the following business is tentatively scheduled to appear in the Order Paper for Wednesday (Afternoon), August 7. A special motion – consideration of nominees for appointment as cabinet secretaries, (The Chairperson, Committee on Appointments).”

The committee is expected to have a sitting early this morning to take a final vote on the individual nominees.

The Secretariat which retreated to prepare the draft report on Sunday evening after the committee concluded vetting the last batch of the nominees, is under instructions to ensure it concludes with the report before today morning.