The National Assembly on Wednesday evening discussed the January 15 attack on a Kenya Defence Forces camp in El-Adde, Somalia, in which an unknown number of soldiers were killed.
The discussion was, however, held in camera after Speaker Justin Muturi ruled that it was a matter of national security, applying a rarely used provision in the standing orders for a matter to be handled in a closed sitting.
Saku MP Colonel (Rtd) Ali Dido Rasso asked the Speaker to allow the House to sweep aside all business at 5.30pm to discuss the attack under provisions that allow the postponement of all business to discuss a matter of national importance.
Mr Muturi said Col Rasso had approached him before the sitting in the required manner and then ordered that the discussion take place at 5.30pm, at which time the galleries were cleared and the sitting was closed to the public and the press.
The attack in El-Adde was the biggest on a Kenyan military installation since the start of Operation Linda Nchi in October 2011.
An unknown number of soldiers and officers were killed when Al-Shabaab militants attacked the camp.
Chief of Defence Forces Samson Mwathethe gave the most detailed account of the attack yet five days later in which he said that the force of explosions at the camp was equivalent to three of the bombs used in the August 1998 attack on the American Embassy in Nairobi.
The Defence and Foreign Relations Committee has announced its intention to look into the matter and two meetings — also closed to the public — have been scheduled today.
Source: Daily Nation
