• Majority leader Abdi Guyo says Elachi interfered, will never be allowed to return.
• Elachi accuses assembly chiefs of widespread nepotism and favouritism.
The verbal battle between embattled Nairobi Speaker Beatrice Elachi and the MCAs is threatening to thwart her chances of returning to City Hall.
She was impeached nine months ago and reinstated two weeks ago by the Labour Court that ordered MCAs not to impeach her again. Judges said she did not receive a fair hearing.
Elachi and the MCAs are still embroiled in nasty exchanges ahead of her expected return to the county assembly after the court quashed her impeachment.
Last week, Elachi accused Majority leader Abdi Guyo, his minority counterpart Elias Otieno and clerk Jacob Ngwele of running down the assembly.
She claimed the three, who are members of the assembly service boards, the institution's decision-making agencies, have politicised the institution and entrenched favouritism and nepotism.
She blamed the MCAs for electing Guyo and Otieno to the powerful board contrary to the Standing Orders and dictating who sits in which committee.
“Since when does the law allows MCAs to decide that the Majority and Minority leaders sit on the board and it is they to decide who will belong to which committee. And if you are not their close ally, you are nowhere. Where is it in law?” she asked.
The MCAs led by Guyo, hit back, terming her a bitter opportunist, a pathetic leader and a failure who cannot lead the institution.
“Elachi cannot claim that we cannot sit in the board. We were elected by the members to sit there and we have been there since 2013. We are not opportunists like her,” Guyo said.
Guyo said that Elachi demonstrated incompetence during her one-year stint at City Hall and should blame herself for squandering the golden opportunity she was given by the President.
“Elachi crossed paths with nearly everybody. She even tried to interfere with committees. The law does not allow the speaker to sit in the budget committee. What was she doing in the budget committee? Trying to interfere with its work,” he said.
On claims he has been dictating the committees where MCAs sit, Guyo said it is the duty of the Liaison committee to place members in committees and appointments must be approved by the whole House.
“I chair the Liaison Committee that deals with the committee placements. So it is not a unilateral decision as she claims,” Guyo said.
The County Assembly Service Act, 2017, states that two members nominated by political parties represented in the assembly according to their proportion of MCAs shall sit in the board.
The board consists of Acting Speaker Chege Mwaura, Ngwele, Guyo, Otieno and two members of the public.
“Elachi can talk the way she wants and we will not be intimidated. She will never be our speaker. Let her know that,” insisted the majority leader.
Speaking on a TV talk show last Thursday, Elachi accused Ngwele of nepotism.
“Nepotism in the institution is so high that you have a relative working in each and every department so as to ‘take care’ of every document that moves,” Elachi stated.
She urged the National Assembly and Senate to be precise and reexamine the Standing orders of the County Assembly.
Elachi is yet to return to City Hall more than two weeks after the Labour and Employment Court reinstated her. MCAs had overwhelmingly impeached her in September last year. They had accused her of gross misconduct and incompetence.