Assembly rift puts Lenku, speaker Osoi on collision course

Kajiado county assembly faces a bitter split after MCAs allied to Governor Joseph Lenku walked out of the House, halting proceedings on Wednesday.

Speaker Johnson Osoi was expected to give a crucial ruling on why he single-handedly appointed an ad hoc committee to spearhead public participation on a Water Bill sponsored by nominated MCA Onesmus Ngogoyo.

The MCAs were allegedly bitter that the speaker took too long to give an answer, accusing him of shielding members of the ad hoc committee. 

After the direction of the speaker had been deferred severally, the MCAs converged in the House on Wednesday to demand answers. 

When Osoi deferred the answer again to next week, 10 out of the 19 members walked out as they promised to 'deal with him accordingly'.

They were led by a strong ally of Lenku James Lesere (Matapato), Samuel Teum (Ildamat) and Lucy Wachuka (Nominated).

Teum claimed the speaker has never been impartial and said those opposed to his leadership will never support illegality.

“We have standing orders of the House which should guide the way we are doing business. This is not a kangaroo assembly. We have been elected to serve the people of our wards, not to come here and support the wastage of their resources,” the MCA said.

He said the sectoral committee should have been involved in public participation and support of the Kajiado County Water Harvesting Bill, 2019.

The MCA argued that the seven members in the ad hoc committee are drawing allowances from August 26 to 30. 

The members of the committee, whom the MCAs claimed all friends of the speaker, are receiving Sh8,400 per sitting.

Lesere asked why the speaker was delaying his ruling saying it could have been to "allow his kitchen members to continue eating illegally".

But deputy speaker Joseph Masiaya defended Osoi saying the standing orders provide that there many options that allow the formation of ad hoc committees.

“An ad hoc committee falls under select committees. The speaker can commit any Bill to any select committee of the House. This is exactly what he did,” Masiaya said.

Masiaya spoke to the Star after we unsuccessfully attempted to interview Osoi over the claims he is running the assembly like a personal matter.

He said a sponsor of a Bill at the assembly has a lot of say and that can decide that the Bill be committed to a sectoral committee.

“They also have the privilege to request the formation of an ad hoc committee which the speaker will approve his/her chairmanship as per the rules of the House,” Masiaya said.

He said he deferred the answer last week to Wednesday because he wanted to give an answer that would set precedence for the future of the assembly.

“So what happened yesterday (Wednesday) is that the speaker was present and being my boss, I handed the matter to him. He deferred it again to next week and that is the reason the MCAs walked out.” 

He, however, read politics in what happened, adding that the matter did not warrant MCAs to walk out.

“There is more than meets the eye in this and I do not really know where it is headed."

Earlier on, Ngogoyo claimed he was seeing the hand of Governor Lenku in what was going on in the assembly. He accused Majority leader Julius Moipaai (Imbirrikani-Eselenkei) of failing to support a fellow party member.

Moipaai and Ngogoyo are both from Jubilee. Ngogoyo claims the governor started a war with him after he failed to attend his scorecard ceremony on August 16.

“What is coming out is that the speaker of the assembly is the target of a wider scheme from the governor’s kitchen. They want him out, and they are using me as an excuse to impeach him,” Ngogoyo said.

He said he sees no wrong to take a Bill to the House, and that those aligned to the governor should come out clear and define their objective instead of being seen as dividing the county. 

Edited by R.Wamochie