Nairobi News

Governor Mike Sonko wants Speaker Beatrice Elachi to resign over her handling of the revoked supplementary bill that allocated Sh15 billion to Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS).

Sonko accused Elachi of ignoring the law in the drafting and passage of the Nairobi County Supplementary Appropriations Bill, 2020 that was de-gazetted by the government printer on Monday after an order from Solicitor General Ken Ogeto.

He argued that the speaker deliberately chose impunity throughout the process ignoring all the provisions of the Constitution, County Governments Act, Public Finance Management Act and the Standing Orders of the Nairobi County Assembly.

“What the speaker of the Nairobi Assembly has treated Nairobians and Kenyans at large for the last one month is sufficient to call for her resignation and that is the position of the governor. She no longer befits to hold that position because she deliberately chose on the path of impunity,” said Sonko’s spokesperson Ben Mulwa.

Mulwa absolved the governor from any blame regarding the revoked bill saying he did not interfere with allocations to NMS for the transferred functions but only had a problem with illegal allocations made by the assembly on functions that were not included in the Deed of Transfer of functions.

On her part, Elachi maintained that due process was followed in the whole process asking Ogeto to shed light on what constituted ancillary services in the Deed to avoid another stalemate in future budgeting, saying that was the point of departure between the governor and the assembly.

However, Mulwa said the Executive is now preparing to forward to the assembly for consideration a new supplementary budget that they have been working on.

“The governor hopes that the process shall be expedited within the confines of the law, so that more time is not wasted as was the case in the month of April,” he said.

This even as more than 50 Jubilee MCAs, emerging from the party’s caucus at Sonko’s Upper Hill office on Tuesday, pledged to support the yet to be introduced bill to ensure smooth operations of NMS which had been affected by the wrangles.

The MCAs, led by Matopeni MCA Abdi Guyo, said they had resolved to see to it that the new supplementary bill is approved by the assembly.

“We have already spoken to the governor and he has agreed, in line with the AG’s advisory, to quickly publish a new bill and forward it to the Assembly for consideration. We have equally reached out to the NMS for their input on the bill so that we can better address their concerns,” said Guyo, in a statement.

Guyo aded that they agreed not contest the de-gazetting of the earlier bill asking the Solicitor General to ignore any letter from the assembly criticising the revocation.

“We are aware that there are those who have written letters to the office of the AG in their individual capacities contesting the revocation of the bill. Letters received from any other party other than the speaker or the clerk are to be treated as individual opinions which do not represent the position of the assembly,” he said.