Nairobi County Executive Committee members will be impeached if they ignore summonses from assembly committees.
Governor Mike Sonko on Tuesday gave MCAs the go-ahead to take action against defiant executives and urged the legislators to help tame graft at City Hall.
He was responding to concerns by Majority leader Abdi Guyo and Majority Whip Waithera Chege.
Sonko said county assemblies should be empowered to carry out their oversight mandate.
The governor, however, cautioned the legislators not to take advantage of their role to undermine or blackmail his executives.
“To my CECs and chief officers, if you are summoned, honour the invitation. But respect is a two-way road, so my officers must also be respected,” Sonko said.
Guyo, however, said that the assembly will not shy away from invoking Article 69 of the Standing Orders, which gives it powers to impeach a County Executive Committee member.
“If you refuse to appear it means you don’t want to be held accountable and this time around we will send some of this CECs home,” he said.
Majority whip Waithera Chege said some of the CECs and chief officers have no sense of respect to MCAs, noting that the habit is sabotaging their oversight mandate.
A report tabled by a select committee on implementation of the assembly resolutions in December last year implicates five CECs as notorious in turning down committee summons.
The leaders were speaking at the Nairobi County assembly stakeholders breakfast forum held at Nairobi which attracted participation from the MCAs, CECs, USAID, Agile and Harmonised Assistance for Devolved Institution (AHADI), Ukaid, as well as other non state actors stakeholders, meeting just before the reopening of the assembly after the long holiday recess.
The Majority leader further promised that the assembly leadership will advocate for sobriety and deal an end to fistfights that have in the past been the norm at the chambers in times of crisis.
He revealed that the select committee will seat to reconstitute membership of committees in a bid to enhance effectiveness and oversight capacity.
“You cannot be in the budget committee when you can’t even construct a simple English sentence. We must put people where they fit,” Guyo said.
Sonko said he would continue sacking officers if it meant dealing with corruption.
Despite complaints from a section of MCAs and city residents on his sackings, Sonko said he has enough evidence to merit his decisions and warned his CECs to ensure monies allocated for development are used effectively.
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