A section of ward representatives at the Laikipia County Assembly has accused Governor Joshua Irungu’s administration of interfering with the independence of the House.
This comes in the wake of approval of three members of the Rumuruti Municipality Management Board who had been rejected by the House vetting committee.
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee had unanimously rejected John Longisa, Francisca Ida and Fredrick Mwangi to sit in the seven-member board but when the report was tabled before the County Assembly on Tuesday evening, they were cleared during a session where some committee members changed their minds on the floor of the House.
When rejecting the three names that had been forwarded for vetting by Governor Irungu last year, the committee noted that three of the nominees did not present their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) while the third one had four cases currently pending in court.
Mukogodo West MCA Nicholas Lempaira while tabling the report on the vetting told the House that they could not bend the rules governing the rules to please the executive.
‘’When the requirement states that you must have a degree, you must present it no matter the tribe you come from. We didn’t vet the nominees based on tribe,’’ Lempaira told the legislators.
The start of the afternoon session was delayed for over two hours owing to the intense lobbying ahead of the report tabling and the Deputy Speaker Anthony Theuri made his entry into the House after 5pm with the sitting being extended past 6.30pm.
Lempaira termed the development as capture of the Assembly by the executive arm saying it would set a bad precedent if it was not checked.
‘’The assembly is under capture by the governor since nominees who we disapproved as a committee after scrutinising their documents and integrity were approved. When we came into the assembly some members who even signed the report had to disown it since the governor made direct calls to them,’’ lamented Lempaira.
Adding, ’We are setting bad precedent even to other committee and other boards within the county that shows clearly you won’t be vetting people based on their qualifications and what standing orders guide us.’’
Those who supported the clearance of the three members supported their decision saying even if the three were not qualified for the positions due to their low level of education; they deserved to be appointed since they represented marginalised communities.
By Muturi Mwangi
