Members of county assemblies yesterday told off senators for criticising them over impeachment of speakers.
They also hit out at the speakers for rushing to the Senate for protection and laughed off their petition to have their impeachment process amended to the threshold of governors.
Led by Nairobi county assembly Majority leader Abdi Guyo, the ward representatives said that Senate’s criticism of them points to an attempt by senators to usurp their powers and micromanage the affairs of county assemblies.
“We want them (senators) to tell us if the Constitution gives them the powers to elect and impeach speakers on behalf of the county assemblies,” Guyo said.
The MCAs reacted just a day after the Senate Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations warned them against impeaching and threatening speakers.
On Wednesday, Nandi speaker Jashua Kiptoo, who chairs the Intergovernmental Legal Committee told the Senate committee that they want their impeachment process amended to the threshold of the governors.
Kiptoo wants the Senate to have a final say on impeachment of county speakers. But addressing journalists at City Hall yesterday, the MCAs told the speakers to should manage their egos and learn to co-exist with MCAs instead of rushing to the Senate for protection.
“They should manage their egos and know how to work with their members in a respectable manner because they are employees of the MCAs,” Guyo said.
He told the senators to stop entertaining unconstitutional petitions and stick to their role of protecting and safeguarding the interest of county governments.
“It is seems the senators have become so idle or they have forgotten their core mandate of protecting the county governments. They have left their role and now they want to become prefects of the county assemblies,” he said.
The ward representatives dismissed claims that they were being compromised by governors to impeach speakers. They also denied claims they are impeaching speakers for exposing corruption in the assemblies.
“Which corruption are they exposing? There is nothing in the assemblies to be stolen. The only money that is there is meant for salaries and allowances,” Guyo said.
A number of speakers have been impeached over a raft of allegations ranging from gross misconduct to abuse of office. Nairobi Assembly Speaker Beatrice Elachi was in September impeached over accusations of using public funds to fly first class, a ‘fake’ degree and undergo surgery