Jubilee MCAs have backed down on plans to impeach Nairobi governor Mike Sonko because "there are no compelling reasons" to remove him.
The ward representatives vowed to defeat the motion when it is brought onto the floor of the assembly.
On
September 6,
MCAs debated
the state of the county and set out conditions for Sonko to escape removal from office.
They gave the governor 14 days to relocate from his Mua home in Machakos to City Hall, appoint a deputy governor, stop demolitions of kiosks, recall suspended officers and reopen closed offices at City Hall.
Majority leader Abdi Guyo dismissed the impeachment talk as hot air. He said MCAs never resolved to eject Sonko from office.
“The public is fed with up rumours and propaganda. Only two or three members have been pushing the plan, that is not the position of the whole assembly,” Guyo said.
He spoke during a press conference in his office on Monday.
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Guyo said the governor
has not violated Article 181 of the Constitution that spells out grounds for the removal of the governor.
“By delaying the nomination of a deputy governor has the governor grossly violated the Constitution? Does it amount to gross misconduct?
These people should be serious,” he said.
Guyo said Sonko is in office to stay. No MCA has signed a petition to remove him, he said.
But deputy minority chief whip and Kilimani MCA Moses Ogeto said the plan to remove Sonko is on course.
He said a "state of the county" report that will be presented in the assembly on Tuesday will inform their next course of action.
“We expect the majority leader to table the report for us to know if the issues we raised have been addressed. If not, then be assured, the motion will come,” he said.
For the governor to be removed, it will take 82 members or two-thirds of the 122 MCAs to vote him out. Jubilee has 66 members in the assembly and NASA 56.
If the MCAs are convinced that the grounds are sufficient, then one member – the sponsor of the motion – will notify the speaker supported by at least a third of the members.
The motion will then be debated and taken to a vote. If at least two-thirds of the members endorse the motion, then the speaker shall write to the Speaker of the Senate who will convene a sitting within seven days to determine the governor’s fate.