• Kayole Central MCA Jeremiah Themendu said the time is ripe for Sonko to officially leave.
• Imwatok said they will follow the law and wait for the matter to be officially dealt with in the assembly next week.
The plan to impeach Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko is on despite his decision to hand over some county functions to the national government.
MCAs have welcomed the takeover but some insist that they will remove the governor from his position.
Minority Chief Whip Peter Imwatok (Makongeni) said the handover was a clear sign that Sonko cannot manage the city. Imwatok moved the impeachment motion last week.
"There is no turning back. In fact, he has given us the momentum to give him a ticket of rest from the county as the national government takes over,” he said yesterday.
Imwatok said they will follow the law and wait for the matter to be officially dealt with in the assembly next week.
Similar sentiments were shared by other MCAs, with Minority leader David Mberia saying they will not back down.
Kayole Central MCA Jeremiah Themendu said the time is ripe for Sonko to officially leave.
"I’m the seconder of the motion of impeachment and it is coming next week. Sonko has handed the critical dockets over; therefore, there is no point of him being in office," he said.
However, Kennedy Obuya of Imara Daima said proceeding with the impeachment would be "suicidal for the MCAs".
"We hear the plan of impeachment is almost landing but I can tell you it will be a suicidal landing... Nairobi is the capital city," he said.
He said Sonko showed goodwill by signing away some of the county functions to the national government. Obuya suggests that a workshop be held for the MCAs, the attorney general, the county executive committee and the national government so everything is elaborated.
County assembly Health committee chairman Peter Warutere said the takeover was a step in the right direction.
“The four critical dockets that were taken are critical revenue-generating streams. The president ought to have done this back in 2018, I personally support it," he said.
He added that Nairobi as a county did not have the capacity to manage the four dockets, thus resulting in a lot of challenges. He said the assembly will perform its legislative mandate well over the remaining functions.
Some MCAs, however, felt that the attorney general’s advisory should be given on how they are expected to oversight. Planning committee chairman Joseph Wambugu and his Transport counterpart Joyce Muthoni questioned what the future holds for their committees.
"We need clear guidance on our mandate as the committee, together with other affected chairmen, shall seek an advisory opinion on it," Wambugu said.
Muthoni said, "If the national government can do a better job and improve transport, roads and infrastructure, the takeover is okay. However, we need clear explanations on how we are expected to proceed in oversight as a committee."
Leaders from the Minority side blamed Sonko allies for leading the county into a hole by not performing their oversight mandate as required. They did not name names. Mberia said sycophancy had ruined the assembly's ability to hold the county administration to account.
"Despite the national government coming in, our staff from the county will still be doing their duties and our function as oversight still remains. However, the dockets taken over are the backbone of the county so it will just be plain oversight," he said.
Imwatok said the move was long overdue and it is a clear indication that MCAs have failed and slept on their job.
"The four dockets that have been handed over are the heartbeat of the county, not forgetting the revenue collection. Since Sonko handed them over, as the assembly, we have no choice but to accept because it shows as MCAs we slept on our duty. If we did proper and transparent oversight, this would not have happened," he said.
He said some MCAs should be ashamed for lying to the governor that the county was not in a crisis. "We have been having sycophants who have been milking money from the governor since he came to office. As minority side, in 2018 we had said we would remove the governor from office since he had displayed his incapacity but the talks were trashed. Look at where we are now?"