Leave Uhuru's name out of county affairs, Abdi Guyo tells MCAs

Nairobi County Assembly Majority Leader Abdi Guyo has hit out at a section of ODM MCAs, accusing them of dragging President Uhuru Kenyatta’s name into their differences.

Mr Guyo asked the ward representatives to cease using the President's name to drive their personal agenda.

Some MCAs in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) on Tuesday accused a clique of Jubilee Party MCAs at the assembly of invoking the name of the head of State in threatening county officers as well as influencing operations.

Minority Whip Peter Imwatok alleged that some three Jubilee MCAs often use the President’s name to influence recruitment processes at the county executive.

Speaking at the assembly during the special sitting, however, Mr Guyo called upon the minority side to respect Mr Kenyatta, noting he is not only the President but also the Jubilee Party leader.

"I urge the minority leader, who is also my friend, to ask his members who are making it a norm to misuse the President’s name to stop," said the  Matopeni MCA,

"It has become a tendency for some few ODM MCAs to invoke the President’s name whenever they want to push their own selfish agenda in the assembly,” he said.

He said Jubilee lawmakers have shown utmost respect for ODM party leader Raila Odinga in the spirit of his 2018 handshake with President Kenyatta.

“At no time has any of our members invoked the name of the ODM leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in vain,” he said.

NMS criticism

The majority leader further accused his counterparts for using the media to criticise Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director-General Mohamed Badi and acting Nairobi Governor Ann Kananu.

He wondered why the ODM MCAs did not approach the two to air their grievances before reaching out to the public.

The minority side gave Ms Kananu seven days to reshuffle her administration, failure of which she would face unspecified actions.

The ward representatives alleged that some county officers are incompetent while others are being “misled by external forces" on how to execute county affairs.

“For the problem to be solved, you should have reached out to the officials before hitting at the two entities which we are supposed to be supporting as an assembly, “ Mr Guyo said.

He went on to caution his colleagues against using their positions to "intimidate" senior county officials.

“Let’s not use our positions to intimidate the executive, thinking we are above everyone. The deputy governor and her administration should be allowed the freedom to work,” said Mr Guyo.

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