Azimio MCAs accuse Kajiado assembly speaker of prejudice
Kajiado County Assembly Speaker Justin Ngussur Kilesi (left) and a section of MCAs in the House on September 21, 2022.
Azimio allied ward representatives in the Kajiado County Assembly have accused Speaker Justus Kilesi ole Ngussur of favouring their United Democratic Alliance counterparts.
In a press statement signed by 16 Azimio-affiliated MCAs, they are accusing the Speaker of being partisan.
"While presiding over debate in the plenary of the Assembly, the Speaker has blatantly taken sides and denied the members of the Azimio coalition time to air their views and/or contribute to the debate,” the statement read.
The MCAs claim that on February 15, 2023, the Speaker informed the leadership of the Azimio coalition in the Assembly of plans to impeach the CEC Member for Education, and yet no such motion had been filed in the Assembly.
Usurped powers
"On February 15, the Speaker usurped the powers of the relevant House committee and illegally directed that some sections of the Standing Orders of the Assembly be amended to make it easier for the Assembly to impeach CEC members,” added the statement.
They also accuse the Speaker of an illegal amendment of standing orders in an attempt to stall the functions of the government.
They want the Speaker to rectify the disputed amendment of the standing orders process in line with the Constitution, the County Government Act 2012 and the Kajiado County Assembly Standing orders lest they invoke Section 7(2) of the County Government Amendment Act 2020 against his office to hold him accountable to the people of Kajiado.
However, Mr Ngussur told Nation.Africa that the allegations levelled against him were flimsy and politically instigated to malign his name.
He refuted claims that Azimio-allied MCAs were not being given enough time to contribute to debates on the floor of the House.
"The allegations are far-fetched. My office practices an open policy for all MCAs across the political divide. My office is always open for consultation and I have never presided over UDA MCAs meetings on matters to be tabled in the House," Mr Ngussur said adding that the standing order amendment was done within the law as stipulated in the County Government Act 2012.
"The amendment in question was done after a debate by MCAs. All procedures were adhered to. It is the members who debated and voted in favour of the amendment. The speaker does not have a vote,” he said.
Frosty relations
He vowed to remain steadfast while discharging his duties according to the law.
The relationship between the UDA and Azimio MCAs has been frosty for the last five months with party politics playing in the gallery.
The House has 41 MCAs comprising 25 elected ward representatives and 16 nominated ones. UDA has 13 elected ward representatives while Azimio has 12.
Mr Ngussur, who is aligned to UDA garnered 26 votes to beat the Azimio coalition candidate Mr Koin Rompo who got 14 votes during the assembly leadership election in September last year.
In November 2022, UDA-allied MCAs declined to approve the Sh100 million supplementary budget, throwing the planned livestock off-take by the Kajiado County government into disarray.
The MCAs approved Sh10 billion supplementary budget including their Sh750 million Ward Development Fund which will see each of the 25 wards get Sh30 million.
When the assembly resumed the sittings on Tuesday last week after recess UDA ward reps walked out of the chambers in protest as the governor addressed the assembly.
The MCAs, who have vowed to impeach Education executive Jeremiah Ole Njaro, accused the executive of taking part in a skewed bursary allocation.
