Nairobi county will remain without a governor for sometime. This is after the current speaker Hon Benson Mutura who was designated to take the oath of office failed to do so.
Immediately the decision to impeach governor Sonko was upheld by the senate yesterday, the government printer gazetted the decision rendering Nairobi county without a substantive governor. An assumption of office committee was immediately put together for a speedy transition to avert a looming vacuum.
Today at 10.AM at Charter hall, guests and Nairobians assembled ready to witness the swearing of Hon Mutura but that was never to be.
Makongeni MCA Mr Peter Imwatok who was the days MC was always entertaining the attendees as he bought time to await the arrival of the Judge who was to swear him in.
at exactly 2;01pm a judge who was to perform the swearing in ceremony walked in as the crowd went into frenzy acknowledging the new governor in waiting.
The gathering was called into order and after prayers were said, the judge briefly walked out and word went around that he was going to put on his regalia ready for the days duty. Unfortunately this never happened as the peoples hopes were dampened after the county secretary announced that the ceremony was not going to take place after all.
” we have gathered here today as a result of the motion which emanated from the Nairobi county assembly and has been upheld by the senate resolutions of last night. In light of the decision and the gazettement of the same, the assumption of office committee was formed and made several deliberations culminating into this gathering here which is anchored in section 3 /2 of the assumption of office act. However after a brief consultation with the judge who was to preside over today’s event, it us unfortunate that we cannot proceed without offending the laws laid down. According to the assumption of office act, this oath must take place not earlier than 10AM and not later than 2PM. We all saw the judge walk in at 2:01PM and since we are law abiding citizens, we shall not proceed today until further notice” Said Mr. Justus the acting county secretary.
Word has it that Sonko willl be moving to court to try and reverse the decision by both the county assembly and the senate.
So far several senators led by Kipchumba Murkomen of Elgeyo Marakwet and Susan Kihika of Nakuru have poured cold water on Sonko’s impeachment terming it a threat to devolution.
Tanga Tanga allied senators have squarely put the blame on state house and have questioned the rationale behind the impeachment considering that Sonko had tabled many grey areas surrounding it including the forgery of signatures to meet the threshold something that an independent handwriting expert had alluded to during the submission at the senate.
Should Mutura take over in acting capacity, Nairobi county will go into a by election to elect a new govevernor since Sonko has been operating without a substantive deputy after the resignation of Polycarp Igathe
