- Mutyambai, on other hand, was fined Sh500, 000 after he also failed to honour the committee‘s summon for a third time.
- He neither sent a representative nor filed written submission to explain the police involvement in the evictions
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Senators want Nairobi governor Anne Kananu to take full control of the city and exercise powers over the functions transferred to the Nairobi Metropolitan Service.
The lawmakers said Kananu is the legally recognised governor and should take charge of the devolved unit and oversee the execution of its functions.
“It is this House that impeached the former governor. And it is this house that recognises you as the governor,” Senate’s Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations committee chairman Moses Kajwang said.
“Usikuje hapa ukilialia because of NMS. In Swahili they say, "kaa kwa kiti na matako mawili,” the Homa Bay senator added.
Kajwang said that henceforth, the senate will no longer be listening to the general Mohammed Badi led NMS without the governor.
“In fact, there is no day we will listen to NMS without the governor present because that is your agent,” the chairman said.
Kajwang spoke during the committee’s meeting with Kananu over the ongoing investigations into forceful eviction of county staff from houses in Eastleigh and Pumwani.
The staff were evicted under the watchful eyes of the police officers and the parcels allocated to private developers.
The Governor, who had been invited alongside Badi and Police IG Hillary Mutyambai to explain the evictions, was unable to explain or adduce documents on the ownership of the contested land.
Kananu said she did not have any documents related to the parcel as the same were domiciled in the NMS offices.
Badi skipped the session for a record third time to explain the evictions and the ownership of the contested parcels.
Instead, Badi sent a letter to the committee that he was sick and had been admitted to the Karen hospital. The panel has invited him again next week.
Mutyambai, on other hand, was fined Sh500, 000 after he also failed to honour the committee‘s summon for a third time.
He neither sent a representative nor filed written submission to explain the police involvement in the evictions.
“We are not going to stop at the fine. The IG must appear before this committee,” Kajwang said.
Kananu’s revelations triggered a barrage of reactions from the committee members who demanded that she takes control of the city affairs.
“I think we should treat NMS for what it is. The reality is that she is not in charge of those function that have been transferred,” Elgeyo Marakwet senator Kipchumba Murkomen said.
“She might be in charge theoretically as captured it the constitution but practically, those functions are being run from the office of the president,” he added.
Article 187 (2) of the Constitution states that if a function is transferred from one level of government to another, the responsibility for the performance of the function or exercise of the power shall remain with the government to which it is assigned by the Fourth Schedule.
“In fact, if things were not as they are and they were as they ought to be, general Badi would never come here in person. He would have come here as a staff of governor,” she said.
Kananu did not state expressly state whether she oversees the functions but said he has been in constant consultation with Badi on the execution of the functions.
Yesterday, the Senators demanded full disclosure of the deal that led to transfer of Nairobi functions and the ‘quiet’ extension of the term of NMS by the governor.
“I want to propose that we will do a separate motion and ask the governor to update the house on the status of that deed of transfer,” Kajwang said.
The governor had disclosed to the panel that she has extended the term of the deed of transfer by five months – from March to August – to allow NMS ‘complete the ongoing projects.”
“As the governor so it fit that it was good to extend their term so that they can complete their projects and give me a report on all the monies that we have given,” the governor told a senate committee.
In 2020, the then governor Mike Sonko signed off four critical functions to the national government.
They were transport and public works, health services, county government planning, utilities and ancillary services.