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City assembly ODM leadership cracks the whip on rebel MCAs


ODM has cracked the whip on its errant members at the Nairobi County Assembly following a nasty fallout with Jubilee Party in the House.

The de-whipping of the three members from all committees at the assembly follows wrangles between both sides of the leadership at the city assembly.

The discharged members include Sarang’ombe MCA Lawrence Otieno, Kabiro MCA Clarence Munga and his Mathare North counterpart Jared Okode.

Mr Otieno was de-whipped from Trade and Water committees, Mr Okode from Transport, Planning and Culture committees, and Mr Munga from Implementation, ICT, Culture and Trade committees.

The three “rebels” have been accused of going against party position at the assembly by siding with Jubilee Party MCAs to vote for the removal of public accounts committee (PAC) chairperson Wilfred Odalo, a fellow ODM MCA.

The three appended their signatures together with 12 Jubilee MCAs to see Mr Odalo removed at the helm of the watchdog committee despite ODM being against the move.

In his letter dated May 5, Nairobi County Assembly Minority Whip Peter Imwatok notified Speaker Benson Mutura that the three MCAs had been discharged from all their committees as per Standing Order 168 (1) after being accused of misconduct.

“This is due to the reported gross misconducted namely, coercing and intimidating colleague members to go against the party position and house leadership,” reads in part the letter.

The Nairobi City County Assembly Standing Order 168 (1) states that the County Assembly party that nominated a member to a select committee, may give notice, in writing, to the Speaker that the member is to be discharged from a select committee.

The betrayal by the three ward representatives led to the Raila Odinga-led party removing all their 12 members from the committee in protest.

But behind the scenes, the two parties have been involved in a power tussle that is threatening the handshake harmony that the two sides have been having in the assembly.

Last week Tuesday, Highrise MCA Kennedy Oyugi began the process of impeaching Mr Imwatok as the minority whip claiming he was “abusing his position for his selfish gains”.

He alleged that he had already collected 32 ODM MCAs who are in support of the process.

To counter the move, Mr Imwatok discharged all 12 ODM MCAs, including himself from PAC to paralyse oversight role at the assembly.

Minority Leader Michael Ogada said the actions taken by some ODM MCAs to remove their “own” from powerful seats was against the party.

“Anybody collecting signatures purporting to remove the minority whip and PAC chair is doing it against ODM party. The exercise has not been sanctioned by the party,” he said.