Speaker foils Wambora coup at county assembly – Weekly Citizen

Jubilee Party move to remove Embu majority leader of county assembly from office and de-whip two nominated MCAs from committees for the next three months has split the county assembly.

Majority whip Judy Mbuya and speaker Josiah Thiriku informed MCAs of the party’s decision to drop Kithimu MCA Michael Njeru from the majority leader’s position. He was replaced by Kagaari South MCA Robert Ireri. Mbuya is accused of being on the payroll of Governor Martin Wambora.

Mbuya also notified the house of the removal of nominated MCAs Sicily Njiru and Rose Kinyua from assembly committees for three months, on grounds of indiscipline and violation of party regulations.

Thiriku

Mbuya’s move hit a snag after speaker Thiriku dismissed the letters from Jubilee Party headquarters, drafted by Lawyer Franklin Mwendani as inconsistent with the requirement of the county assembly standing Order number 19 which requires the largest party in the house to elect one of its members as the leader of the majority party, pursuant to the political parties Act.

Wambora is said to have influenced the party decision when he drove to Nairobi and made senior party officials to institute the action to tame current rebellion against him by MCAs.

According to Thiriku, the leader of the majority party could only be removed from office through a vote supported by a vote of a minimum of two thirds of the membership of the largest political party or coalition of parties in the county assembly.

He said the removal from office of the majority leader would not take effect until members of the Jubilee party vote.

The speaker ruled that the whip of the Jubilee party should have forwarded a copy of minutes of the meeting held by the political party’s members, removing majority leader and electing a new office holder. The said minutes did not exist and so, the changes in the party leadership were not in line with party rules.

The speaker read out the standing Orders dictating how members of select committees would be removed and replaced and the removal of the nominated MCAs was null, defective and inapplicable.

Mbuya

Thiriku claimed he had not received any communication from the Jubilee party caucus in regard to removal of the majority leader from office or dewhipping of MCAs from committees. The speaker thus declared the correspondence to his office as improper and termed it as a violation of the rules set by the party.

Thiriku without mincing words issued a stern warning to politicians scheming to rise to party leadership “through the back door” that the county assembly would not entertain any decision that would be found to violate any stipulated law.

He said the assembly was a house of rules and procedure and would cease to exist if the laws were violated. He subsequently directed the Jubilee party to adhere to the rules it had set and avoid violating the same, in order for its decisions to be admissible at the county assembly