Governor Abdulswamad Nassir blames postponed poll for delay in naming executive

Just what is taking Governor Abdulswamad Nassir so long to name county executive committee members?

The constitutional deadline for the county chief to form the top echelon of his administration has already elapsed but the names of the officials who will drive Mr Nassir’s vision for the devolved unit remain unknown.

According to the County Government Act 2012, when a General Election is held for a county government, the outgoing county executives shall remain in office until a new committee is constituted.

The Act further states that: “The constitution of a new executive committee after an election shall be finalised within 21 days of the swearing in of the members of the county assembly.”

Mombasa MCAs were sworn into office over a month ago on September 23. But Chief of Staff Noah Akala blames the delay on the postponement of the Mombasa gubernatorial elections.

“The governor was elected three weeks after the other county bosses and his swearing-in came another two weeks later,” Mr Akala told Nation when reached for comment.

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“His fellow governors have only just begun to announce their teams, some as recently as this week, yet they assumed office so much earlier than him.” 

No vacuum

“There is no vacuum as previous office holders are still in place,” he added. This is despite the fact that Kakamega County, whose gubernatorial elections were similarly postponed and held on the same day as Mombasa’s, has already kicked off the process of shortlisting county executive committee members.

Mombasa and Kakamega gubernatorial elections were postponed twice by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission following a hitch in election materials.

Responding to the concerns, Mr Akala reiterated that there is no crisis while pointing out that the governor is in the process of validating his new governance structure with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), after which he shall table it before the County Public Service Board for consideration.

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“We have just sent our final proposed structure of government to SRC for them to give me their input. Very soon, we will be announcing vacancies for the positions of county executive committee members and chief officers,” Mr Nassir had said.

In changing the county’s structure of governance, Governor Nassir says he is seeking to boost trade, attract investors and revive the port city’s economy which was hit hard after the national government transferred some port operations from Mombasa to Nakuru and Nairobi counties more than three years ago.

However, a month ago, President William Ruto reversed the order that forced importers to use the standard gauge railway freight service, thus killing the logistics business that is the backbone of the county’s economy and rendering thousands of youths jobless. 

The governor is involving professionals such as the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya to identify unexplored areas for investment. He will also attract investors through lower tariffs, he said.

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Mr Nassir said trading licences and building permits will be charged according to the areas the businesses are located. 

The governor further revealed that he has finished preparing the Mombasa County Finance Bill, whose aim is to boost small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-market Enterprises (MMEs).

“The bill will focus on reducing [the cost] and consolidating [the number of] single business permits, especially for SMEs and MMEs and zoning out Mombasa. Someone in Mwakirunge doing a similar business with another in the city centre will have to pay different rates,” he said.

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