Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja before the Senate Committee./FILESome Nairobi members of the County Assembly (MCAs) have threatened to impeach Governor Johnson Sakaja over unspecified grievances.
The MCAs met in an informal assembly convened by their speaker early Tuesday morning at City Hall, where the issue of the planned impeachment was discussed.
However, critics have dismissed the plan, wondering how the MCAs want to execute the motion given the assembly is on recess.
The MCAs are yet to draft the motion or collect the required signatures as they plan a retreat next week to deliberate on the move.
Majority Whip Moses Ogeto (Kilimani Ward) said that MCAs met in an informal meeting known as “speaker’s Kamkunji” to discuss members’ welfare and emerging issues.
“Any member is free to draft a motion and seek signatures to impeach the governor,” Ogeto said without disclosing the details of their grievances.
According to Ogeto, the charges against Sakaja are not to be disclosed at this stage, as MCAs are still consulting adding today’s meeting attracted almost 100 of their county legislators.
Speaker Ken Ng’ondi said that although the issue of impeachment came up during the informal meeting, nothing concrete had been crafted.
“You cannot stop any member from speaking in such a forum. Someone can even shout, "Speaker Must Go." However, when it comes to impeachment, there are procedures to be followed,” he said.
According to Ng’ondi, he can only comment about any planned impeachment if a member brings a petition to his office that states the grounds.
“An impeachment of a governor is not about a mob lynch but establishing grounds. After such a Kamkunji, any member can make a follow-up and draft a motion indicating the grounds.”
However, Kileleshwa MCA Robert Alai dismissed the threat to impeach the governor, terming it a ploy to blackmail the Nairobi County boss.
He linked the threat to a fallout between the assembly and executive over a planned land subdivision exercise in Nairobi.
“The MCAs want to wrestle the role of allocating those plots from the executive. This is a plot to intimidate the governor to surrender that role. I don’t trust those MCAs who attended the meeting,” Alai said.
The Kileleshwa MCA accused the county assembly majority leadership of double standards, saying they have in the past frustrated efforts to introduce an impeachment motion on the grounds that they don’t have clearance from Raila Odinga.
“The question is; have they now been cleared by Raila to send Sakaja home? I doubt it. It's all about their interests. This is blackmail. They are more guilty of the crimes that they accused Sakaja of,” Alai added.
South B MCA Waithera Chege said that MCAs will proceed for a retreat next week to harness the motion that seeks to remove Governor Sakaja.
“Today we had about 96 members and over; remember this assembly has 122 members, and therefore we are over and above the numbers required to impeach the governor and deputy,” she said.
Ms. Chege added, “The signatures will go on as long as the speaker who has called the retreat. It’s not the work of the speaker to collect signatures but members. Even if it means calling for a special meeting to deal with the specific agenda, we are ready.”
