Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi has been retained as the Chairman of the Council of Governors (CoG) as Tharaka Nithi's Muthomi Njuki joins the executive as a Whip.
Njuki replaced Nandi's Stephen Sang during an election held by consensus at CoG offices at Delta Centre, Westlands.
Kisii’s Simba Arati, who was chairing the Resource Mobilisation docket, will now chair the Security and Foreign Relations Committee.
“We, the executive, having been duly elected to serve, hereby commit to the following priorities in strengthening the mandate of the council and protecting the spirit of devolution,” Abdullahi said
They include operationalisation of the Devolution Training Institute, implementation of the Strategic Plan 2022-2027, complete transfer and costing of devolved functions and increase membership to Ugatuzi Sacco.
At the same time, the Governors said procurement services are going on smoothly in all counties following a court order that suspended the National Treasury’s directive on electronic procurement.
The Council says the e-governemnt procurement (e-GP) was not working anywhere and they could not risk applying it.
“As you are aware, we moved to court and the court ruled that counties are at liberty to use either electronic or manual procurement. We have complied with that court order and services are going on smoothly in counties,” Abdullahi said.
The CoG boss was speaking at their offices in Delta Centre, Westlands, Nairobi, during a meeting to unveil the Council’s executive committee.
Abdullahi, who is the Wajir Governor, said they had rejected the new system not because they are opposed to it, but it has not been tried and found working.
Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi was first elected the Council of Governors chairperson in October last year.
Abdullahi had been serving as the CoG vice Chair and will now take over from Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru, whose term came to an end.
Last year, Abdullahi's election came after over five hours of deliberations where the county heads from the 47 counties met behind closed doors to discuss key issues affecting devolution among them the rotation of leadership between the Kenya Kwanza and Azimio coalitions.
Previous CoG chairpersons are; Isaac Ruto (2013-2015), Peter Munya (2015-2017), Josphat Nanok (2017-2019), Wycliffe Oparanya (2019-2021), Martin Wambora (2021-2022) and Waiguru (2022-2024).
The rotational leadership structure has been a significant factor in ensuring representation from both sides of the political divide.
The Council of Governors plays a pivotal role in representing county interests at the national level, and this new leadership team is expected to bring fresh energy to the council’s agenda
