Nairobi MCAs now accuse Raila of shielding governor Sakaja from impeachment push

A fresh push to impeach Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja and his deputy Njoroge Muchiri has gathered steam at the Nairobi County Assembly, with pro-impeachment Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) claiming they have far surpassed the minimum signatures needed to table the motion (42 out of 123 members) even as the name of ODM party leader Raila Odinga’s features prominently as having stood in the way of the county legislators’ seeking to broker a truce and forestall the ouster bid against the governor.

Public tallies over the last 48 hours have ranged from 63 to 90-plus signatures as rival camps jockey for momentum.

Reports indicate that ODM leader has stepped in twice in recent days convening tense meetings with assembly leaders including Speaker Ken Ng’ondi and with Sakaja himself, to cool tempers and scuttle the ouster drive in vain.

He is expected to convene a third meeting later today.

However, the ODM leader was not immediately reachable for comment by the time of going to broadcast.

“He is trying to prevail upon the assembly leadership to convince the MCAs to drop the impeachment bid but the assembly members have stood their ground. Previous attempts to push out Sakaja from office due to his dismal performance as the city governor have been thwarted. We are not backing down this time round. We will press on to the bitter end,” one of the Nairobi assembly leaders told The Informer Media Group.

Despite Sakaja being a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) part governor, the ruling party under President William Ruto’s administration, he is said to have resorted for Raila’s intervention to leverage on the overwhelming majority ODM party commands in the assembly hoping that Raila’s word under ODM political vehicle could carry weight.

However, political pundits hold that Raila’s move in the current political arithmetic could ricochet politically across the city, and back onto ODM if service delivery stalls.

Mike Mbuvi Sonko was the last Nairobi’s governor to face impeachment and was removed from office after the assembly vote sailed to the Senate and survived scrutiny there.

Political observers now say that a failed attempt to remove Sakaja from office would inevitably embolden him while a successful one would plunge City Hall into a succession scramble.

“The governor has fallen out with UDA top political brass and seeking ODM’s support is the last kicks of a dying horse,” another assembly leader who spoke to us on condition of anonymity added.

So far, draft charges being circulated by pro-impeachment MCAs run beyond 20 items largely touching on alleged failures in service delivery, budget execution, stalled development projects, revenue management and adherence to assembly resolutions.

So far, over 90 of the 123 MCAs convened on August 26, 2025, in a heated informal meeting, known as a “Speaker’s Kamkunji,” chaired by Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Ken Ng’ondi.

The meeting, attended by key figures including Majority Leader Peter Imwatok, Minority Whip Mark Mugambi, and Deputy Minority Leader Waithera Chege, resulted in a resolution to initiate impeachment proceedings against the governor and his deputy, citing over 20 charges related to incompetence, neglect, and mismanagement.

The MCAs have outlined a litany of grievances, accusing governor Sakaja of being out of touch with Nairobi’s residents and failing to deliver on key campaign promises made during his 2022 election.

“We have collected 63 signatures. The threshold is 40 for impeachment. So we will table the motion on Tuesday. The meeting was held at Westlands. Over 30 MCAs have called, and they are with us,” Kileleshwa MCA Robert Alai, who attended today’s meeting, said.

Nairobi South MCA Waithera Chege said the meeting took place at a private residence in Nairobi where the impeachment motion is currently being drafted.

“We have resolved to send governor Sakaja home over broken promises, we are in a recess, but the next thing is to request the speaker to call for special sitting from next week,” Waithera added.