• They allege that impeachment was the top agenda of two meetings held on Monday and Tuesday at Capital Hill.
• But the assembly leadership insists the intention was to rally support for the BBI report when it is brought to the assembly after the collection of signatures.
Image: JACK OWUOR
MCAs allied to Governor Mike Sonko claim another plot has been hatched to impeach the county boss over his refusal to assent to the bill on the Sh37.5 billion 2020-21 budget.
They allege that impeachment was the top agenda of two meetings held on Monday and Tuesday at Capital Hill.
The Tuesday meeting was attended by the county assembly leadership which, however, said the gatherings were about the Building Bridges Initiative.
The house leadership comprises the speaker, deputy speaker, Majority and Minority leaders, deputy Majority and Minority leaders, Majority and Minority Chief Whips and their deputies.
In February, a court saved Sonko from impeachment after he was accused of a litany of misdeeds, including abuse of office and financial mismanagement.
On Wednesday, Minority leader Michael Ogada said their meeting was about harmonising the assembly and BBI signatures collection.
"The main agenda was to ensure the assembly speaks in one voice," Ogada said.
His views were echoed by deputy Minority Whip Moses Ogeto, with the emphasis that their intention was to rally support for the BBI report when it is brought to the assembly after the collection of signatures.
The two denied that the impeachment of Sonko was part of the agenda.
But Roysambu MCA Peter Warutere insisted there was a plot to impeach Sonko for denying the Nairobi Metropolitan Services funds by not assenting to the Nairobi City County Appropriation Bill, 2022.
“ODM MCAs are behind this plan and they should know that Sonko will remain our governor. We will never impeach him. I know they (leadership) only have seven signatures,” Warutere said.
He said Jubilee MCAs support their leader, adding that President Uhuru Kenyatta, the party leader, does not want a by-election in Nairobi.
Nominated MCA Silvia Museiya said the impeachment plot has everything to do with the governor’s refusal to assent to the bill, a decision that is starving both City Hall and NMS of revenue.
The bill became an Act after the expiry of 14 days allowed by the law for the governor to act.
Sonko says he will not grant the Maj-Gen Mohamed Badi-led NMS Sh27.1 billion, its share of the budget.
This is likely to stall the implementation of projects in the capital city.
Museiya and Jubilee colleague Ann Thumbi have been summoned by the party for "actively campaigning, opposing and frustrating the budget estimates for the Financial Year 2020-21".
According to Museiya, who is the assembly Education committee chairperson, Sonko was right to reject the budget if he felt he had been left with insufficient funds to sustain the functions he was left with after the transfer of four core functions to the national government through the NMS.
Highrise ward representative Kennedy Oyugi claimed the rejection of Sonko’s budget amendments was irregular.
“The process was irregular since it was conducted virtually and that the mikes of all those supporting the governor had been muted,” he said.
On November 3, more than two-thirds (88 out of 122) MCAs voted against Sonko’s memorandum on the budget.
In February, Minority Whip Peter Imwatok tabled a notice to impeach Sonko, accusing the first-term governor of a litany of misdeeds, including abuse of office and financial mismanagement.
On March 2, Justice Byrum Ongaya of the Labour and Employment Court temporarily stopped Sonko's impeachment on the grounds that due process had not been followed.
Justice Ongaya directed the county assembly to adhere to standing orders 67 and 72 which require substantive verification of the collected signatures.
Last month, the judge extended the interim orders he had earlier issued to a further date when the case will be mentioned.