- ANC and other parties will only provide a swing vote in the speaker contest.
- ODM scooped 48 of the 60 elected MCAs and left other parties to share the remaining 12.
Image: FILE
Former Shinyalu MP Justus Kizito is among seven applicants who have expressed interest to become the next speaker of Kakamega county assembly.
Lobbying for the seat has picked momentum after the conclusion of the governor election last Monday.
Among those interested are Kizito, former speaker Morris Buluma, Brian Lishenga and Leonard Shimaka.
Others are former majority leader Kennedy Kwake, lawyer James Namatsi and former deputy speaker Soita Kasaya.
The candidates have been meeting MCAs from the 12 constituencies in the county to lobby them to support their bids.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission gazetted the list of nominated MCAs on Friday.
The race will be an all ODM affair after the Orange party won majority of the elected MCAs in the August 9 general election.
ODM scooped 48 of the 60 elected MCAs and left other parties to share the remaining 12.
ANC and other parties will only provide a swing vote in the speaker contest.
Kizito contested for the Shinyalu Parliamentary seat but lost to Fred Ikana while Lishenga lost the Kakamega senate race to Dr Boni Khalwale in the August 9 polls.
The assembly will be dominated by new members after 45 of the 60 MCAs were sent packing by voters during the August polls.
Governor-elect Fernandes Barasa will be sworn into office on September 15.
The governor is supposed to gazette the first sitting of the assembly at which MCAs-elect should be sworn in within 30 days after their election.
MCAs-elect are now wondering what will happen now that the 30 days will end before the governor-elect is sworn in.
While the ward reps were elected on August 9, governor elections in Kakamega alongside Mombasa county were delayed for 10 days following a mix-up in the ballot papers.
“We are in a state of confusion because the law is silent as to what happens if we’re not sworn in within 30 days,” said David Ndakwa, the former minority leader.
-Edited by SKanyara