Nairobi MCAs rally against Zoom sittings citing laziness, low morale

A section of Nairobi MCAs now want the county assembly to resume physical plenary sittings, arguing virtual sessions lack seriousness.

Led by Deputy Majority Whip Waithera Chege, the county legislators say virtual plenaries on Zoom are not effective as only a few members log in, and that even those who log in do not exhibit seriousness.

Ms Chege also cited technical hitches and said the Zoom sittings have contributed to increased laziness and unprofessionalism among county lawmakers.

She highlighted last Thursday's plenary sitting, which had to end early as the mover of the day's motion could not log in because of technological hitches.

The Nairobi South Ward MCA said: “The online way of conducting plenaries has decreased House business. What are we really doing in the House as MCAs?”

Since going virtual in June last year, the assembly has made headlines over goats invading virtual meetings, and some members logging in with their "bare tummies" exposed on massage tables.

The assembly has been having only two plenary days - twice on Tuesday and once on Thursday with Wednesday left for fumigation to help curb the spread of Covid-19.

With the pandemic, they turned to virtual sittings for the plenaries, with only the leadership and MCAs with business allowed inside the chambers.

“I’m pleading with our Speaker to let us resume physical sittings with strict Covid-19 preventive measures, just like the Senate and National Assembly,” she said.

“Paid for nothing”

Nominated MCA Doris Kanario wondered why only the Nairobi County Assembly is sustaining virtual sittings as Parliament, which shares the same locality, conduct business physically.

Umoja One MCA Mark Mugambi also said the Nairobi assembly should not be an exception.

Mr Mugambi said very few MCAs follow proceedings via Zoom since one can easily log in and engage in other activities by muting video.

“We are being paid for nothing as the Zoom meetings have made some of us lazy, with many failing to log in,” he said.

Nominated MCA Kabiro Mbugua said: “Online plenary has really reduced morale and business. Participation of members has gone down since there are features like raising points of order which can’t be done via Zoom. It's killing debate.

Dandora Four MCA Francis Otieno supported the proposal to return to physical sittings but said they should only be for vaccinated members.

Another section of the MCAs preached caution, saying although physical sittings are more effective than Zoom meetings, “prevention is better than cure”.

Roysambu MCA Peter Warutere said: “We are not out of the woods yet as far as Covid-19 is concerned, so let's be careful lest we get the high numbers of infections we had shortly before we were forced to adjourn indefinitely in April, when close to 50 of us, myself included, contracted the virus.”

Minority Whip Peter Imwatok concurred, saying the health of MCAs and assembly staff come first.

“Zoom is the way to go. What we are doing is to encourage members to bring more business so that we remain as active as before,” he said.

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