Unseen hands in Nairobi county assembly battles – Weekly Citizen

President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga pulled another fast one on William Ruto after Jubilee Party endorsed changes in Nairobi county assembly leadership that saw the DP’s allies dropped from influential posts.

This came as ODM made similar changes where its MCAs suspected of being the deputy president’s moles were dropped from influential posts in the county assembly.

First to go was the county assembly majority leader Abdi Guyo who, courtesy of national assembly majority leader Adan Duale was doing the DP’s bidding at the county assembly.

Guyo

Uhuru used Jubilee party secretary general Raphael Tuju, who has also embraced the ODM leader, to remove Guyo as the majority leader in the county assembly.

Guyo, who had the backing of the deputy president was fighting speaker Beatrice Elachi whose comeback was brokered by Raila.

Elachi is on record stating that she is opposed to the deputy president taking over from Uhuru in 2022.

In a letter addressed to the Nairobi county assembly speaker, Tuju said Guyo’s position will be taken over by Charles Thuo, the Dandora MCA.

Nominated MCA June Ndegwa was picked to replace Chege Waithera, another ally of the DP, as the majority chief whip.

Ziwani MCA Millicent Mugadi took over as the deputy majority leader while California MCA Hassan Abdikadir is the deputy chief whip.

Tuju’s letter came in the wake of fierce battles that have rocked the Nairobi county assembly over disagreement on the house leadership.

The controversy has left the house divided into two groups; those allied to speaker Elachi and those behind majority leader.

The new leaders who have now been endorsed by the Jubilee Party were selected during a meeting held in Mombasa by a section of MCAs believed to be allied to Elachi.

The line-up received the endorsement of Governor Mike Sonko, who sent a letter to the Jubilee party, informing it of the new house leadership.

“Ordinarily, we do not wish to interfere with the affairs of our MCAs unless it is absolutely necessary… In order to bring clarity on the issue of the leadership in the house, we have decided to respect the list,” said Tuju.

The Jubilee party secretary general condemned the chaos witnessed following the disagreement on the house leadership, urging the MCAs to desist from taking matters into their own hands.

“It is unfortunate that some of the MCAs precipitated a chaotic situation in the assembly before we could resolve it,” said Tuju.

Elachi was more than elated to sign on the political death bed of Guyo, who had used all means to frustrate her, keeping her in political cold for nearly two years.

Duale

The speaker was in the cold until when ODM MPs and pro-handshake Jubilee MCAs joined hands to upend power dynamics in Nairobi city county by bringing her back.

The deputy president through Guyo had bankrolled the Jubilee majority to keep Elachi in the cold.

Luck had been running out for Guyo for some time but his fate took a precarious turn with the return of Elachi and the fallout with Governor Sonko, who had demanded his removal owing to incessant squabbles.

Earlier, Sonko had teamed with Guyo to eject Elachi from the speaker’s position.

“It is expected that the majority leader will work in harmony with the head of government (in reference to Governor Sonko) especially when they come from the same party,” Tuju said in his letter to Elachi.

Guyo, a DP Ruto lackey, had tried to remain at the helm of the assembly through wide ranging tactics, including seeking court intervention but the forces against him were as resolute as a steal beam.

Tuju

Matters were not helped by the fact that Ruto’s grip of Jubilee is getting sweaty, and loosening rapidly.

But the ousted majority leader has threatened to present evidence against Sonko to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations over graft issues.

Speaking to journalists after his ouster, Guyo said the evidence against the governor mainly touches on revenue collection and the contract with the company that took over from JamboPay.

Guyo also blamed Sonko for the division that has rocked Nairobi county assembly.

Guyo, who is also the Matopeni

MCA, was ousted as majority leader amid fights with Elachi, who had been reinstated through a court order months after being impeached by the MCAs.

“Definitely, we will contest it. We wrote a letter to the party and we will escalate the matter to the party leader,” he said.