Kiambu MCAs locked in battle with speaker Ndicho

A section of Kiambu MCAs were locked in a fierce battle with Speaker Stephen Ndicho on Thursday over alleged abuse of office.

According to the MCAs, led by ousted leader of majority Gideon Gachara, they accused Ndicho of frustrating members performing their duties by refusing to allow them to raise pertinent issues on mismanagement of the assembly in a bid to gag members.

Gachara said the speaker illegally closed the assembly and altered the assembly's calendar in contravention to standing orders to deny members from having avenues to challenge abuse of office.

On December 2, 14 members had gone to the speaker's office to inquire about the closure of the assembly and during the altercation, the speaker is alleged to have drawn his gun and threatened to shoot. Kiambu OCPD Mohamed Badel and his officers had to intervene.

Among the issues raised by the members include the unlawful removal of the assembly accounting officer by the speaker. The members presented a petition to various government agencies outlining and highlighting the financial risk the speaker has exposed the county assembly to for failure to operate without an accounting officer.

They accused the speaker of spending Sh6,260,923 within two months in unplanned and unbudgeted foreign travels and is in advance stages to travel to the UK for a one month visit at a budget of Sh2 million outside the budgeted amount.

However, Ndicho said only 14 MCAs out of the 93 stormed to his office to disrupt his board meeting with unsubstantiated accusations.

"14 MCAs came and stormed my meeting with board members and had chains and padlocks to close the assembly," said Ndicho.

He said that he acted on standing orders to suspend the assembly since there was a fracas in the assembly.

"The MCAs who made me suspend the assembly are the 14 MCAs who have stormed my office and others are in solidarity with me for suspending the assembly until February next year," said Ndicho.

He said suspending the assembly does not mean that no business can be conducted and the Executive should contact the speaker to reconvene the assembly for the purpose of urgent business.

"If the executive has a business of supplementary budget, they should come and I will gazette and call my members to conduct business," said Ndicho.

He denied drawing a gun on members as he himself has a police officer assigned to him by the government and his gun is in a store.

Three of the suspended memberswho include Leader of Majority Gideon Gachara, Chief Whip Simon Karema and Deputy Majority party leader Ann Wanjiku were replaced early this month by the Jubilee party

The party appointed Elijah Njoroge as the new Leader of Majority, Peter Kioi the Majority Chief Whip and Cecilia Njuguna as the Deputy Majority party leader. 

Gachara insists that he is still the leader of majority and once the assembly resumes from recess, he will lead the government business, saying those appointed had a hand in their appointments which were behind closed doors.

According to the appointed majority leader Njoroge said that he is acting on appointment and since he also holds another appointment from the party to lead the assembly Jubilee party caucus he wishes that the impasse between the speaker and the suspended MCAs could end through dialogue and continue to work for Kiambu.

The MCAs however have put Ndicho on notice to immediately resign within 24 hours, failing which they shall invoke their powers under Section 11 of the County Government Act and impeach him.

They have called on relevant government agencies to investigate the concerns and take necessary action.