•Initially, he had set a retreat for all the 85 elected MCAs but the Azimio section failed to attend, saying it was set on the weekend before the ruling of the Supreme Court.
•Questions had been raised on why Nairobi was yet to gazette the swearing-in while in other counties, the legislators took their oath this week.
Image: TWITTER
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has met Azimio la Umoja Coalition-affiliated MCAs, ahead of their swearing-in.
The Wednesday meeting comes after legislators complained about the delay of the gazettement of their swearing-in.
Six Jubilee MCAs, 35 from ODM and four Wiper MCAs attended the meeting.
Sakaja said he would work for all regardless of political alignments.
Initially, he had set a retreat for all the 85 elected MCAs but the Azimio section failed to attend, saying it was set on the weekend before the ruling of the Supreme Court on the presidential petition.
Speaking to the Star, Kilimani MCA-elect Moses Ogeto said top of the agenda was the discussion on the swearing-in.
“The meeting was meant to happen earlier but the opportunity came yesterday. The governor said he will gazette on Wednesday and the gazette notice will be out on Thursday,” he said.
“We gave him facts and made it clear that we had only one agenda and that was to be sworn in as fast as possible,”
Questions had been raised on why Nairobi was yet to gazette the swearing-in while in other counties, the legislators took their oath this week.
It was said that the delay was to influence the voting pattern of the speaker.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna called out Sakaja over the delay to gazette the swearing-in of MCAs.
Sifuna said the delay was political and will change nothing as the Azimio la Umoja One coalition has the majority in the assembly.
“Sakaja is playing games because they want to see if they can show their might with numbers. It doesn’t matter how long it will take but Azimio has the majority,” he said.
In a gazette notice released on September 14, at least 39 governors had gazetted the first sitting where ward reps are expected to take the oath of office.
This was after IEBC gazetted all the nominated MCAs.
Makongeni MCA Peter Imwatok said Sakaja had no ill motive, saying that he was sure that the first sitting will be gazetted this week.
“We are firm and fully behind our coalition and cannot be ‘bought’ as claimed. The claim that the delay is meant to buy the Azimio-allied MCAs is very far from the truth,” he said.
Ogeto said Sakaja expressed full will and was ready to be assisted and work with all MCAs.
“He has no option but to work with us since Azimio is the majority in the assembly. Sakaja said he was ready to work towards a better Nairobi,” he added.
On the delay of gazettement, Ogeto said the legislators told Sakaja that it is the executive side that will be affected and not the MCAs.
Kilimani MCA –elect revealed that Sakaja said he was consulting first before doing the gazettement.
“MCAs taking the oath is the first step to having a full government in place and by delaying the ceremony, it will be instrumental to Sakaja because he needs to have a full cabinet,” Ogeto added.
The third county assembly will have 124 MCAs, with 85 elected and 39 nominated.
UDA has 35 MCAs, ODM has 35, Jubilee six, Wiper four, CCM one and Independent MCAs are three. Utawala ward is yet to do elections
President William Ruto-led UDA party and Raila Odinga's ODM each have 17 nominated MCAs.
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee has three nominated MCAs and Wiper has two.
The first sitting is important because after taking their oath, they will elect the speakers.
Azimio is rallying behind Ken Ng’ondi while Kenya Kwanza has fronted the current speaker, Benson Mutura.
Swearing-in of the MCAs will give Sakaja leeway to fully constitute his government.
After MCAs take an oath, he will advertise the 10 positions of County Executive Committee members and county secretary.
The latter will double up as Head of Public Service.
The 10 executives will make up the governor's cabinet together with the county attorney.
The current ones at City Hall were brought by former Governor Mike Sonko.
The governor will first have to declare the positions vacant and place an advertisement in national newspapers inviting qualified people to apply.
After being shortlisted, the county assemblies will vet the CEC nominees.
The county assembly committee on appointments is mandated to vet the county executive positions.
The committee is usually chaired by the speaker.
Once the vetting is done, the names will be tabled on the floor of the assembly where MCAs will either reject or approve.
Once approved, the names will be forwarded back to Sakaja where they will be later sworn in.
The same process will be followed during the appointment of the chief officer only that they will be vetted by the respective committees in the area they will specialise.
For instance, the chief officer for health nominees will be vetted by the county assembly health committee, chief officer for finance will appear before the budget and finance committee for vetting.
Once the vetting is done, the county government will be fully in place and ready to serve.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris