• County secretary Jairus Musumba on Monday told the Star the governor is yet to gazette the sitting, awaiting the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
• “The house is not yet fully constituted as the IEBC is yet to gazette the nominated members of the county assembly,” he said.
Image: MAUREEN KINYANJUI
The swearing-in date of Nairobi MCAs is yet to be known as the IEBC delays to gazette nominated MCAs.
County secretary Jairus Musumba on Monday told the Star the governor is yet to gazette the sitting, awaiting the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
“The house is not yet fully constituted as the IEBC is yet to gazette the nominated members of the county assembly,” he said.
However, this is subject to the governor, who by law is mandated to gazette the sitting.
"The governor by notice in the Kenya gazette and the county gazette, shall appoint the place and date of the first sitting of the new county assembly,” the Nairobi City County Assembly Standing Order 4 (1) says.
By then, IEBC is supposed to have gazetted the names of elected and nominated members.
Last week, the Wafula Chebukati-led commission gazetted all the 1,450 MCAs- elect who are awaiting to be sworn in across the 47 counties.
In 2017, the MCAs were sworn in on September 6.
The Nairobi assembly is supposed to have 122 MCAs, out of which 85 are elected.
Last week, the 85 Nairobi-elect MCAs held a two-day orientation to prepare the legislators ahead of the first sitting of the House.
At the assembly, the United Democratic Alliance party has 36 MCAs, Orange Democratic Movement party (35), Wiper (four), Chama Cha Kazi (one), while three seats have been won by independent candidates.
The Standing orders also state that there will only be two items in the order paper on the first sitting – the election of the speaker and swearing-in of members.
In the sitting, the clerk, in this case Edward Gichana, will be expected to read the notification of convening the assembly as published in the Kenya gazette.
Gichana will also list the names of persons elected as members of the assembly.
“The clerk shall administer oath of office provided for in the First Schedule of the County Governments Act, 2012, to all members present,” the standing orders read.
After gazettement of the date of the first sitting by the governor, the clerk will declare the position of the speaker vacant and invite interested individuals to apply for the seat.
In April, Azimio la Umoja- One Kenya coalition flagbearer Raila Odinga announced that the Nairobi’s speaker position would be given to the ODM party.
However Jubilee party, which is part of Azimio has appointed Harrison Wangoro Mwangi as its candidate for the speaker’s position.
Mwangi was vying for Embakasi North MP on a Jubilee ticket but lost to a UDA candidate.
His appointment was confirmed by party secretary general Jeremiah Kioni on Thursday at Jubilee’s headquarters in Pangani.
The president-elect William Ruto-led UDA party, which has 36 MCAs at the assembly is yet to speak on the matter.
The role of the speaker is to preside over debates and maintain assembly attendance register and orders, relevant statute and assembly traditions, procedures and practices.
Besides being the spokesperson of the assembly, the speaker also ensures the dignity of the assembly is upheld and disciplines MCAs for misconduct.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)