• Murkomen says amendment to ensure that Parliament provides other grounds that meet the Constitutional threshold to protect MCAs from what he termed as 'frivolous attacks'.
• President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law the County Government (Amendment) Act 2020 last week.
Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen has refuted claims that he sponsored a whole new law on recall of MCAs.
Murkomen on Wednesday pointed out that he had only proposed an amendment to ensure that Parliament provides other grounds that meet the Constitutional threshold to protect MCAs from what he termed as 'frivolous attacks'.
"If you read Part IV of the Elections Act (2011) especially sections 45, 46, 47 and 48 on recalls of Senators and Members of National Assembly you will realise that the threshold for recalling MCAs is higher than for recalling MPs," he said.
The grounds are similar to the Constitutional grounds for removing the President, Deputy President, Governors and Deputy Governors.
"They are; gross violation of the Constitution or written law; incompetence and gross misconduct," Murkomen tweeted.
"Without these provisions, anyone would easily initiate recall for MCAs without justifiable grounds set in law. The other amendment was to ensure the petitioner is a voter in the respective ward"
The senator said all the other provisions on recall of MCAs have been there since 2012.
He said a false impression has been created that he had just sponsored the whole law on the recall of MCAs.
The lawmaker said that specific law on recall of MPs and MCAs has been in place for over seven years, even before the 2013 elections.
President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law the County Government (Amendment) Act 2020 last week.
Murkomen added that some MCAs even those who are serving their second terms had not read the county government Act yet it is the basic law that together with the Constitution and the Standing Orders control the daily operation of MCAs and the County Assembly.
In 2012 Parliament passed the County Government Act whose Part IV of the Act in Sections 27,28 and 29 dealt with the recall of MCAs.
In 2016 the Katiba Institute went to court to invalidate the above sections and to make it easy for MCAs to be removed.
As a result the High Court in 2017 declared some of the sections unconstitutional.
Among them is section 27 (2) which dealt with grounds of recall.
"As a result of the decision, MCAs were exposed and it was possible to initiate their recall without giving any reasons," Murkomen said.