• MCAs have elected Elisha Oraro as acting Kisumu speaker until corruption charges against embattled incumbent Onyango Oloo are cleared.
• Oloo denied the charges when he appeared before a Milimani court on Monday. He was granted a Sh10 million bail.
MCAs have elected Elisha Oraro as acting Kisumu speaker until corruption charges against embattled incumbent Onyango Oloo are cleared.
Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji last Friday called for the prosecution of Oloo over graft claims. He is accused of receiving a Sh17 million bribe to authorise irregularities in the building of the Lake Basin Mall. This allegedly led to the inflation of the cost from Sh2.1 billion to Sh4.1 billion.
Oloo denied the charges when he appeared before a Milimani court on Monday. He was granted a Sh10 million bail.
There was a stand-off at the Kisumu assembly for the better part of yesterday. MCAs engaged in a fistfight over the election of the acting speaker Oraro who is the North Kisumu ward MCA. Furious MCAs demanded that Oloo steps aside.
Chaos began when deputy speaker Roy Samo, who was presiding over the sitting, was forcibly ejected from the seat.
Samo was accused of shielding the speaker. As a section of the MCAs fought, Samo adjourned the assembly to next week.
There was a fracas at the Kisumu county assembly on Tuesday as MCAs sought to pick a new speaker following Onyango Oloo's mentioning in the Lake Basin Mall case. See story https://bit.ly/2keV5j2
The sergeant-at-arms did everything they could to protect the the mace which is the symbol of authority in the assembly. One was slapped in the face.
Some MCAs who are loyal to Oloo walked out of the assembly. Clerks ran away from the chambers. Later, the sergeant-at-arms also walked out of the assembly in protest after their colleagues were roughed up.
Thereafter, the speaker’s panelist Inviolate Adhiambo took over the assembly business. Oraro was sworn in.
Majority leader Kenneth Onyango, who moved the acting speaker’s election motion, said 29 members had signed a petitioned presented to the clerk demanding for the election of an acting speaker.
Onyango told the assembly that article 178 of the county assembly standing orders allows members to elect someone to hold the office of the speaker if he is out for any reason.
Her said Oraro was proposed by ODM party to take the position of the speaker in acting capacity as the substantive speaker handles his graft case.
Kobura MCA John Atieno said he had withdrawn his candidature for the position in favour of Oraro.
In the morning, there tension when a contingent of police officers was deployed to the assembly.
They officers watched as several youths sang, danced in praise of Oraro. They said they were tired of Onyango's leadership.
They further claimed that Oloo was undermining the executive.
However some MCAs who sought anonymity said that they already have a go ahead of the party ODM, to elect Oraro as the acting speaker.
However the MCAs allied to Oloo claimed that the process would be illegal and they will not be party to it.