Nairobi County Assembly Majority Leader Peter Imwatok has issued a stern warning to MCAs who skip plenary sessions.
On Tuesday afternoon, the house at first struggled to attain a quorum of 42 MCAs for the session to commence.
After reaching a quorum, Imwatok expressed his disappointment saying that it was unacceptable for MCAs to skip plenary on purpose.
“It is rather disappointing that elected members who have been trusted by people to represent their interest at the assembly are now slipping sessions,” he said.
Skipping sessions results in violating provisions of Standing Order 242 of the county assembly.
The standing order states that if a member is absent from eight sittings of the assembly, during any session, without permission in writing from the Speaker, the Speaker shall report the matter to the assembly and the matter shall stand referred to the committee of privilege for hearing and determination.
Going further Majority Whip Moses Ogeto also noted that Chairpersons and vices of committees were also skipping sessions.
Last week, Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Ken Ng'ondi raised concern over serious absenteeism by MCAs during plenary sessions.
The speaker said it has been very difficult for the assembly to attain quorum during plenary sessions causing unnecessary adjournments.
He went ahead and termed the move as selfish and unacceptable and prevailed upon his colleagues to serve the voters who gave them the mandate to oversight, represent and legislate
The issue caught the attention of the house leadership after the media highlighted it last week.
As a result, a number of MCAs have expressed their views that the media should be gagged from revealing some happenings of the house.
However, the Majority leader defended the presence of media, adding that the fourth estate was an important player in the assembly.
“The media should be left to do its work independently. The media is in fact helping wanjiku know what type of leaders they elected,” Imwatok added.
Moving forward, the Majority leader warned the MCAs against skipping sittings.
Imwatok directed the Whip from both sides of the house to conduct an evaluation process of every committee attendance as well as plenary.
He also said that he will soon be proposing an amendment to Standing orders to reduce the limit for skipping sessions from eight to five.
