• MCAs say court cannot impose Elachi on them as her position is political.
• Elachi should move on as the majority of MCAs have lost faith in her.
Image: FILE
Nairobi MCAs have vowed to reject embattled assembly Speaker Beatrice Elachi despite a court reinstating her.
Elachi was impeached last September on grounds of abuse of office and gross misconduct.
The High Court on Monday ruled in favour of her in a case she filed last year following her impeachment by the ward representatives.
But the MCAs now say they will not allow Elachi to set foot in the assembly precincts.
“We are the people who employed Elachi and we have said we don’t want her. The court cannot force an employee on an employer. We don’t want her,” Majority Leader Abdi Guyo said.
In a phone interview with the Star, Guyo said they had lost faith in the former nominated senator, a fact that cannot be reversed by the court.
“No amount of intimidation, coercion or blackmail will make us change our minds. Let her get a job elsewhere. There are many jobs in this country that she can do,” he said.
Minority Leader Elias Otieno said Elachi was an outsider and a stranger who should not set foot in the assembly.
“Some 103 members voted for her removal against two. That is a clear vote of no confidence in her. Who does she want to work with or lead? We already voted her out and that cannot change,” he said.
Minority Chief Whip Peter Imwatok faulted the court for reinstating Elachi, saying it was overreaching on the powers of the assembly.
He said the position of the Speaker is political and any dispute about it can only be solved politically and not by court.
“Elachi should go in another direction either to demand for her damages but not as our Speaker,” he said.
“Her impeachment was done in accordance with the law so we cannot work in retrospect,” he said.
In September last year, the MCAs caused a fracas at the assembly after they stormed Elachi’s office and ejected her.
Elachi had returned to the office after the court temporarily reinstated her. But the MCAs immediately elected Ngara ward rep Chege Mwaura as the assembly’s acting speaker.
Edited by Otieno Owino