Nairobi County Assembly has rejected four nominees who had been shortlisted for the chief officer positions.
The nominees who had been vetted by various county assembly committees on Thursday, were found to be unfit to hold the offices they were nominated in.
They are Justus Kathenge (Boroughs and subcounty), Winnie Gathangu (Economic Planning), Elizabeth Njeri Njau (Markets and Trade) and Bernard Buluma Kulokhoma (Wellness, Nutrition, and School Feeding).
Kathenge and Gathangu served in the second county government during the tenure of former Governor Mike Sonko and Ann Kananu as chief officer and County executive member.
Kathenge and Njeri were found not to be suitable for the positions by the assembly.
County Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Wilfred Odallo said that Gathangu was found to be unfit and not suitable for the position.
"It was during her reign at the county executive that bursary money had been diverted to a Maryland account. So we cannot allow such an incident to happen,” he said.
His counterpart, Maurice Ochieng, of the Health committee noted that Bernard Buluma did not convince the committee that he was up to task for the job.
“The nominee was not versed and had no experience in the area he was nominated to. The committee rather established that he had more knowledge of economics rather than in nutrition and wellness,” he said.
Collins Omondi Kamol who had been nominated to the Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources position failed to show up for vetting.
In its report, the Agriculture committee recommended that Governor Sakaja should nominate another person for the job.
The other 28 chief officers were approved and will be waiting for their appointment letters from the County Public Service Board.
With the appointments, Sakaja will now have a full administration.
County chief officers are authorised to delegate power and are answerable to the county executive committee member in their respective dockets.
Their key functions include the day-to-day administration of departmental activities and the provision of strategic policy direction for effective service delivery within the departments they are assigned to.
They also implement policies and programmes within departments.
While county executive committee members are equivalent to Cabinet secretaries in the national government, chief officers are equivalent to permanent secretaries.
The power to deploy a county public officer within a department is vested in the county chief officer.
