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How Nairobi Speaker cleverly thwarted bid for ‘People’s Assembly’ motion

By NATION TEAM December 8th, 2017 2 min read

Nairobi Speaker Beatrice Elachi outwitted opposition MCA’s and voided their well laid out plans to table a motion on “The People’s Assembly’’ in the House Thursday.

This development angered the National Super Alliance (Nasa) representatives who had turned up in their numbers, prompting them to storm out of the Chambers in protest.

Efforts by the Minority Chief Whip Peter Imwatok to table the motion since last week came to nought after the Assembly’s leadership failed to allocate it time for debate.

In as far as Thursday was concerned, Mr Imwatok and his Nasa colleagues had hatched a plan which, should it have been executed as laid out, could have seen the motion sail through since the Opposition had the majority had he been given the opportunity to move.

NOTICE OF MOTION

House Standing Orders 51 allows any member to bring a notice of motion.

Mr Imwatok said he had in the morning asked the Speaker to allocate him a vehicle in his official capacity, to attend a committee meeting in Naivasha.

“We had it all planned. I had told the Speaker that I will be in Naivasha for three days and she should allocate a vehicle for me, and for sure I left. After members of Jubilee had assured her that they had seen me there, I then left for Nairobi to table the motion,” said Mr Imwatok.

The Makongeni MCA said that the Nasa leadership had instructed all its members not to leave town for committees taking place in Mombasa and Naivasha giving them the upper hand to have the majority in today`s plenary.

However, the speaker refused to give the member a chance to speak or move the motion stating that the sequence of the publication in the order paper where the motion time is slated had passed.

MOTION OF ADJOURNMENT

Ms Elachi skipped the motion and allowed instead the majority leader to move a motion of adjournment which angered the MCAs forcing them to walkout.

The assembly adjourned for recess until February 2018.

Meanwhile, in Mombasa, the County Assembly on Wednesday became the latest to pass a motion on creation of a people’s assembly.

The MCAs, all of whom accept one (independent ticket) were elected on Nasa affiliate parties unanimously passed the motion.

The assembly becomes the 11th to adopt the motion.

The Machakos County Assembly also followed suit by becoming the 12th in the country to pass the people’s assembly motion.

Pressure had been mounting on the County Assembly to pass the motion with majority Leader Francis Ngunga making a remark that it was ‘a matter of ‘life and death’ for him.

Thursday, some members told the Daily Nation that Wiper Party Leader Kalonzo Musyoka was making phone calls from Germany.