• During her resignation, Elachi advised Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko with whom she has had a frosty relationship with to focus on God and stop intimidation.
• Her tenure has been marred by wrangles with a section of Members of the County Assembly accusing her of bias and abuse of the office.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Hardcore, stern, fearless and steadfast.
These are some of the best words to describe former Nairobi Speaker Beatrice Elachi.
Elachi who has been seen by some as a woman of steel in the assembly, has had to bare the brunt of unruly MCAs and a chaotic City Hall since her election.
Nairobians on Tuesday woke up to news of her resignation headlines after persistent leadership wrangles in the assembly.
But who exactly is this woman?
Elachi is a politician who has been Speaker of the Nairobi County Assembly, since September 6, 2017.
She replaced Alex Magelo, who did not contest his seat. Immediately prior to her election, she was the Majority Whip in the Kenyan Senate.
Image: MAUREEN KINYANJUI
Elachi goes down in history as the first ever female speaker to serve in the Nairobi City County Assembly, as well as the first ever female Majority Chief Whip to serve in the Senate of Kenya.
'INTIMIDATION, EMBARASSMENT'
But her tenure has been marred by wrangles with a section of Members of the County Assembly accusing her of bias and abuse of the office.
Elachi was impeached on September 6, 2018. But Employment and Labour Court judge Pauline Onyango overturned the impeachment .
But her fight with MCAs appeared to be far from over after the ward representatives planned to appeal the court ruling that quashed her impeachment.
MCAs cited gross misconduct and abuse of office for the impeachment. The court also stopped the ward reps from impeaching Elachi in future.
Some 103 MCAs voted to remove her from office, two voted against while two others abstained.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
The MCAs removed her for causing 'great embarrassment' to the county assembly.
With her leadership skills, female legislators came out to her defence saying she was being victimised because she is a woman.
The National Assembly Women Caucus condemned the move by MCA's to forcefully evict Elachi out of her office.
NO PLEASE!
Elachi who holds a Doctor of Public Administration (DPA) from the Common Wealth University; a Master in Peace, Governance and Security Degree as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Peace and Conflict Studies returned to the assembly on October 2019.
With her prowess in peace management, she went back to her post after the court ruling but her return was nothing but chaos.
Like any other politician, MCAs allied to Elachi brought her back to the assembly on the October 9, 2019.
ODM MCAs closed all the gates barring access into and out of the assembly, an indication that she was unwanted in the premises.
“I have been the speaker all along and I have come back to bring sanity in the assembly,” Elachi said.
Later that month a section of Jubilee MCAs launched a fresh bid to impeach Elachi and at least 67 ward reps signed the motion to remove the speaker who only returned to the assembly two weeks ago following her impeachment in September last year.
Elachi had earlier this month adjourned the assembly sittings. She said she took the decision to give time for normalcy to return and to allow members to find ways of sorting out existing differences.
Chaos once again marred the assembly shortly after MCAs supporting the new impeachment motion were disrupted by their counterparts while addressing the media.
At some point, stones and water bottles were hurled at a section of the Jubilee MCAs forcing them to cut short their press conference.
SONKO Vs ELACHI
During her resignation on August 11, 2020, Elachi advised Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko with whom she has had a frosty relationship with to focus on God and stop intimidation.
"I think I was the biggest stumbling block for the governor but I want to pray for him. Governor, focus on God and stop threatening peoples lives it does not help," she said.
The supremacy wars between Sonko and Elachi played out with both flexing their political muscles.
The fight for the control of the devolved government drove a wedge between two camps of ward representatives.
When Elachi was still in office, she returned the County Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2020 back to Governor Sonko for his assent.
The bill sent back is the original that was passed by the House on April 2, and which allocated at least Sh15 billion to the Nairobi Metropolitan Service.
In her ruling, Elachi set aside the said memorandum in its entirety and it will not be committed to the Committee of the Whole Assembly.
The political marriage of convenience between the two in 2019 crumbled during the bid to impeach the governor.
Sonko felt he had been left to his devices and that his support for the speaker was not reciprocated.
Since Sonko handed over Nairobi to the national government, the speaker has been hiding behind the Nairobi Metropolitan Services to settle scores with the governor.
CAREER
In 2005, Elachi played a part in the Constitutional referendum that elevated her to join the Kibaki Tena campaign where she worked as an outreach manager.
In 2013, she joined Alliance Party of Kenya and thereafter was nominated to The Senate.
She has received several awards including: Wanjiku’s Best Representative 2014 (Food Security) having tabled a Food Security Bill 2014 in The Senate, People’s Shujaaz Awards (Finalist 2014: Food Category).
Image: FILE
Before her nomination in the Senate, she served as Executive Director of the League of Kenya Women Voters.
Her other previous positions include: Coordinator of The Collaborative Center for Gender and Development (2005-2007); Programs Coordinator, National Council of Women of Kenya (2003-2005). She has consulted for Women’s Political Alliance Bridge Africa, Center for Multi-Party Democracy and Women’s Leadership Caucus.
Her work has extended to women empowerment as well as the girl child empowerment and civic education.
She vied for the Dagoretti North parliamentary seat on a Jubilee ticket in 2017 but lost to ODM's Simba Arati.
FAMILY
In 2018, Elachi who is a married mother of four children, told one of the local dailies that she is a mother of nine children.
But she noted that the majority of them are adopted, and are under her care out of goodwill, some of whom are in university.
"Niko na watoto tisa, wengine si wangu lakini kwangu wote ni wangu (I have nine of them, I consider them all mine though some are not biologically mine),’’ she said.
Born in 1973, Elachi schooled at St. Teresa’s Primary School and Moi Girls High School Vokoli before joining the African Nazarene University where she graduated with both a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Peace and Security Studies.
She was brought up in an unstable cross-cultural family when her parents separated, she had to drop out of Nazarene University to handle issues at home.
In 2005 she joined the Banana Team ahead of the Constitutional referendum and instantly developed interest in politics.
She later became the outreach manager for the Kibaki Tena campaigns in 2007.
The former nominated senator is among the political figures whose family remain largely unknown to the public.
Elachi said that she is keenly balancing to ensure that he politicking doesn't affect the lives of her family.