Kitui county assembly speaker Kevin Katisya has rejected attempts to change the house leadership, saying the process was not procedurally done.
MCAs have been locked in bitter fights to change the house leaders but Katisya says the attempts are null and void because the communication was made to his office in the wrong manner.
The speaker’s failure to recognise Munyoki Mwinzi as the new majority leader and Daniel Ngoima as majority whip now escalates the squabbling with the new leaders vowing to fight for their positions.
Mwinzi on Wednesday threatened to take the standoff over the Wiper leadership changes to court.
“Because the assembly is a house of rules and run on Standing Orders, we will now go to court for interpretation. The speaker is playing ignorant to rules,” he said on phone.
Early this month, Wiper MCAs who are the majority at the Kitui county assembly, voted out majority leader Harrison Maluki and majority whip, Bonface Katula and replaced them with Mwinzi and Ngoima.
On September 5, Ngoima as the new majority whip wrote to the speaker informing him of the change of guard in the assembly Wiper leadership. On the same day he wrote another letter asking the speaker to withhold the privileges and perks Maluki and Katula previously enjoyed.
But in his September 26 response to Ngoima’s letters, Katisya termed the communication void. He said he would only accept a letter from Katula who was the substantive majority whip or his deputy.
“The Assembly has a substantive majority whip and his/her deputy as implied in Standing Orders 15(6) and (7) from whom I would expect such a communication for my action,” the letter from Katisya dated September 26 said in part.
The speaker’s letter was titled; Removal of Hon Harrison Mawia Maluki from the office of majority leaders and election of Hon Munyoki Mwinzi as the leader of majority and removal of Hon Bonface Mukwate Katula from the office of majority whip and election of Hon Daniel Ngoima Kimanzi as majority whip.
“The sitting circumstances renders your communication void,” the speaker told Ngoima.
He further added that Ngoima’s letters was against the assembly Standing Orders as the subject matter was internal but it was copied to other external bodies and authorities.
In his reaction to the speaker’s letter on Wednesday, Ngoima said beauty of it is that the speaker had acknowledged the receipt of his letter indicating that there were changes in Wiper leadership in the assembly.
“All you should know is that I penned the letter as the majority whip. It is well and in the right place. We are escalating the matter elsewhere. We have a good case before the court,” Ngoima said.
An attempt by Mwinzi on Tuesday to occupy the seat of the Kitui assembly leaders was averted by speaker who ordered him to vacate the same.
The speaker told the assembly that he had professionally pronounced himself on the matter of the Wiper assembly leadership and would not stomach any disrespect from MCAs.
Even as Mwinzi was vacating the seat on orders of the speaker, Katisya demanded that going forward, he expected his decisions to be respected as he had a constitutional entitlement to the speaker-ship.