Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
The Nairobi County Assembly leadership have maintained that they will not accept embattled Speaker Beatrice Elachi to lead the assembly.
The leadership said that Elachi was lawfully impeached and she is no longer recognised as the assembly’s speaker.
The statement comes ahead of Friday's court ruling where a decision will be made to decide Elachi’s fate.
Majority Leader Abdi Hassan Guyo said that the court cannot impose her to the house by force.
“ As a house, we have and already lost confidence in her. Elachi is our servant and the court cannot force her down our throats,” he explained to the Star on Tuesday.
Guyo said the House had already moved on and is comfortable under the leadership of Ngara MCA Chege Mwaura who was elected as the Acting county assembly speaker.
With 84 votes, Chege was elected as the acting speaker on September 25, 2018.
Elachi who was the first female speaker was impeached on September 6, 2018, after 103 MCAs voted to remover her from office.
However, she moved to the Employment and Labour Relations Court and extended the order, allowing Elachi to remain in office.
Elachi was our servant and we do not require her services anymore and that is why we proceeded to impeach her on the floor of the assembly.Majority Leader Abdi Hassan Guyo
The Matopeni Ward rep further stated that the court can only give the assembly 'remedies' but cannot force Elachi back to the house.
His counterpart from the minority side Elias Otieno said that the house is not willing to work with her
“We will allow the court to do its part because we did ours last year in September where we impeached Elachi and followed the county assembly standing orders," Elias said.
The Minority leader explained that even if the speaker was from the Jubilee side, the Nasa side is not willing to accept her back.
“Elachi will remain to be a stranger to us and she cannot come back and lead this house. So far we are doing well with our acting speaker and everything has progressed,” Otieno said.
He further maintained that even if the court rules on her favour, it cannot forcefully pressure the House to accept Elachi.
The two leaders, however, said the county assembly leadership supports the handshake fully but will not accept someone who wanted to use a divide and rule method among the legislators.
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