House deputy speaker Job Ndugai

Two Chadema MPs-elect, Joshua Nassari (Arumeru East) and Cecilia Daniel Paresso (Special Seats), yesterday didn’t take oath of office in Parliament as scheduled.

National Assembly Speaker Anne Makinda told parliamentarians on the incident that the House Steering Committee had arranged for the two new MPs to take oath first thing on Day One of the current meeting, which kicked off here yesterday.

Nassari was elected in a by-election held on April 1 following the death of his predecessor, Jeremia Sumari (CCM) who died early this year. Paresso was nominated by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to fill a seat left vacant by Regia Mtema, who died in February this year.

According to the House Speaker, her office had not been informed why the new legislators had failed to attend yesterday’s morning session. She said that a new date of their swearing in would be set by the Parliamentary Steering Committee.

Meanwhile, Chadema has apologised to the Office of the Speaker after Nasari and Paresso failed to to take oath of office as scheduled. The party’s deputy secretary-general Kabwe Zitto said communication breakdown between his party and Speaker’s Office had caused the embarrassing scenario.

He said his party had applied to the House for rescheduling of the ceremony from Tuesday to today, but due to information breakdown, the Parliament office didn’t get the information on time.

House deputy speaker Job Ndugai said the House Steering Committee which sat yesterday had decided that the two MPs-elect take their oath of office tomorrow.

In another development, Ndugai informed that the duration of the ongoing Parliament Meeting has been extended to end on April 24, instead of April 21, as previously scheduled.

He explained that the extension was made to accommodate emerging activities, including presentation of audit reports.