Members of the Nairobi County Assembly (MCAs) are now seeking to amend the Assembly Standing Orders to have a leeway to elect their preferred Majority and Minority leader respectively.
They want to do away with the political parties’ dominance of imposing assembly leaders on them.
If passed, the ward representatives could soon be allowed pick their own assembly leadership according to a proposal seen by The Informer.
“The largest party or coalition of parties in the county assembly belonging to the party or coalition of parties to be leader of the Majority party”, partly reads a proposal by Highrise MCA Kennedy Oyugi.
On the appointments, Oyugi says that assembly should take into account any existing coalition agreement entered pursuant to Political Parties Act and gender balance should also be considered.
Incase members are not happy with the elected leaders, the proposal advises that he or she be removed by two-thirds of the votes from both sides.
In the current Standing Orders, the largest party or coalition designates a member for the role of the Majority Leader with the same also happening with the minority leader where the second largest party in the house designates a member.
Already, Speaker Benson Mutura has directed the Powers and Privileges Committee to have a meeting tomorrow to deliberate on the issue then give a report.
The new proposal comes against the backdrop of the ongoing leadership wrangles that have rocked the ODM party.
Already, the party has threatened to discipline seven “rebel” (MCAs) by expulsion and de-whipping them from county committees.
The MCAs are accused of going against the Raila Odinga’s led Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party’s position at the city assembly, fueling division, and rocking the boat from within.
Interestingly, Oyugi who is championing the new proposals is among the seven MCAs who have been accused of installing Savannah Ward MCA Nicholas Okumu as the interim Minority Whip.
In a letter by embattled Minority Whip Peter Imwatok, the seven have been accused of colluding with some unnamed Jubilee Party MCAs to initiate a “coup” in the party’s leadership.
Imwatok said that despite the party warning the members, they still went ahead and executed a leadership change within the party during a special sitting of the assembly Thursday last week.
The change in leadership saw Okumu replace Imwatok as the minority party’s whip, a culmination of a two-week-long process to remove the latter from office that began early this month led by Oyugi who claimed to have collected 32 signatures, out of 56 ODM members, in support of the move.
Others who are facing disciplinary action are Mathare North MCA Jared Okode, his Ngei Ward counterpart Redson Otieno and Maurice Gari of Nairobi West.