Journalist sues city assembly board

Journalist Chrispinus Wekesa has filed a case in court saying the Nairobi County assembly board as currently constituted is illegal.

Wekesa says the current chairperson is not the substantive speaker yet the board is transacting business on behalf of the Nairobi County assembly.

“There is no substantive speaker of the Nairobi City county assembly and one Beatrice Elachi has been denied her rights as the Speaker of the county assembly after the MCA’s elected an acting speaker in contravention of a court order,” says Wekesa.

The public he says has been denied a chance to be represented on the Board. “The Board is supposed to be of continuous succession but failure to timely recruit the one man and one woman to represent the public has locked out the public from the board,” he says.

Read: Elachi sues assembly and board for contempt

He says if the decision the Board has made since its inception in September 2017 are challenged in court, the public risks losing money since the decisions may be rendered null and void.

He wants matter be certified as urgent and other orders it deems fit.

According to the court documents, the Nairobi County Assembly service Board since its inception in September 2017, has not recruited the one man and woman to represent the public on the board as is required under the county assemblies Act.

He says on September 6 this year, the Nairobi city county assembly passed a resolution impeaching the speaker Beatrice Elachi which decision was subsequently stayed by the Employment and Labor relations court. That in utter disregard of the court order issued by the high court the assembly went ahead to elect an acting speaker and chair of the Nairobi City County Assembly service Board yet there is no provisions of acting speaker in the county assemblies.