Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni has hinted that he will move a motion in parliament seeking to scrap positions of nominated members of county assembly(MCAs).
According to the legislator the move will help reduce the wage bill and ensure proper running of the oversight role in the county assemblies.
“There is need to scrap off these positions as the nominated MCAs are the biggest stumbling blocks in ensuring that the county assemblies oversights the executives,” lamented the MP.
Kioni said the nominated MCAs were the ones being used by Governors to influence the oversight role of the assemblies.
“The governors have a key role in ensuring that their associates are the ones nominated to the assembly hence they use them to push their agendas in the assembly.
That is why the assemblies, he claimed, fail in their oversight role as the elected ones are overpowered when it comes to voting,” said Kioni at Ndaragwa town today.
Kioni said that if the motion fails, then the nominated MCAs should be denied powers to vote in the assembly as it happens in the senate.
“The elected MCAs are the voice and choice of Wanjikus to represent them and hence should have more powers in the assembly. If the motion to scrap these positions fails then they should be denied powers to vote for motions and bills in their respective assemblies,” he said.
The lawmaker lamented that the electorate were not gaining enough from those they elected.
“The elected ones have been overshadowed and that is why we need a constitutional amendment into these. Why should we have so many nominated MCAs who do nothing but sycophancy anyway?” he posed.
He called on other legislatures to support the amendment bill as it would also go a long way in reducing the wage bill in counties.
By Jesse Mwitwa
