•Dissident MCAS summoned to Nairobi for party meeting
Defiant Mombasa MCAs have said they will not be intimidated or tricked out of Tuesday's debate on their impeachment motion against Transport executive Tawfiq Balala.
A letter on social media indicates that 14 of the 39 ODM lawmakers in the county assembly have been summoned to a party meeting in Nairobi on Tuesday —the day to debate the impeachment they tabled motion is to be debated.
It is seen as a gesture of defiance to Governor Hassan Joho, as the assembly becomes more self-assertive, less including to blindly follow the 'Sultan's' orders.
The Mombasa County Assembly has 42 members, only three of them not in ODM.
The list of those summoned include MCAs who have been most vocal against Balala, including the author of the impeachment motion, Athman Shebe alias Mukono — known as "the fist,"
They call Balala incompetent and high-handed, hurting their relations with their own constituents.
Mukono said they will struggle to help residents get the services they deserve.
The invitation to Nairobi arrived as the Senate called on the MCAs to defer Tuesday’s planned impeachment of Balala.
Senators said the removal should be put on hold until they listen to the assembly and the executive over the disputes that have been rocking the county government.
The Senate’s Devolution committee, which seeks to arbitrate between Executive and the counties, was to question county Speaker Aharub Khatri and Governor Hassan Joho on Monday.
Khatri said, however, in a letter to the committee on Monday morning that he was unwell. Joho was expected to appear before the panel at noon.
On Sunday, the Speaker said though they respect the party, they will not honour the summons, even if the online letter turns out to be authentic.
Many believe it is fake as it was written on March 15 and the Majority leader, Speaker of the assembly NX Clerk had received it by Monday morning.
The Nairobi 'invitation' is one of the games being played to prevent them from impeaching Balala, the MCAs say.
Joho has said that if MCAs don't leave his executives alone, they will be sent home packing before therm terms end.
ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna on Monday confirmed the authenticity of the letter to the Star, saying he wrote it.
“I don’t know why it is such a big deal that I write letters to members of ODM. We write letters all the time, Sifuna said on the phone.
Assembly chief whip and Frere Town MCA Charles Kitula was the first to receive the letter through WhatsApp on Friday.
On Sunday, he told the Star he got it from an unknown number.
“The procedure is that letter must pass through the Leader of Majority. He has not confirmed whether he has got the letter or not,” Kitula said on the phone.
He said, however, that they cannot honour the summons because the meeting comes on a day when they are supposed to attend assembly sittings.
“The law says they must arrange a meeting when there is no assembly sitting. Sending a summons on a day we are supposed to be in the assembly is going against the law,” Kiitula said.
He added: It is not possible to go. They are trying to restrain people from doing their oversight role" — a reference to the sacking of Balala.
Sifuna said the ODM meeting is equally important and that there are many ways to communicate with members.
“The meeting is important. We want to discuss internal matters of the party. We write letters all the time,” Sifuna said.
Meanwhile, the Star has been informed the summons to Nairobi bears Joho’s fingerprints.
He doesn't want his man Balala to be removed.
Sources close to the governor, say that Joho, his former political adviser and now sub-county administrator Idris Abdirahman and county ODM chairman Mohamed Hatimy have been holed up in meetings strategise on how to defuse rising rebellion in the assembly.
The latest gatherings happened last week where a decision to involve ODM's top organ was approved.
Balala is one of Joho's closest executives; he served in his first term and maintained the docket after 2017 polls.
Meanwhile, residents are preparing a petition to dissolve the assembly. A source said the initiative to dissolve the county is Joho-sponsored.
He anticipated it would slow down MCAs impeachment plans but it did not," a person aware of the development said. He requested aonymity for fear of reprisal.
TThe lobby Operation Fagia Bunge, on Sunday said it had collected 50,958 signatures already since it launched the drive four days earlier.
They want to collect 200,000 signatures to petition President Uhuru to dissolve the county government. This did not not dismay joho.
The Star could not corroborate these figures.
"Last week Joho and his team saw the threat to dissolve the assembly was not 'working' and resolved to have mutineers summoned in Nairobi," the source said.
On Friday, Changamwe MP Omar Mwinyi criticised Mombasa Senator Mohammed Faki for ‘rushing’ to the Senate to table the Mombasa problems.
He suggested there is bad blood between the Senator and Governor Joho.
“In Mombasa, we have our small problems. But some want to focus on them because they have issues with our Governor. “Some have taken the motion to the Senate, some have done other things. But we can solve our own problems,” Mwinyi. said
Speaking in Rabai on Friday, he urged Joho to sit with his people and resolve this matter amicably.