Jubilee Party has suffered a blow at the Nairobi County Assembly after one of its members lost her seat due to absenteeism.
Nominated MCA Habiba Hussein’s seat was declared vacant by Speaker Beatrice Elachi after being absent from the plenary sittings for two years.
This comes after the Assembly adopted a report by the Powers and Privileges committee investigating allegations of absenteeism from plenary sittings by members.
The report tabled by vice-chair and Githurai MCA Naftali Mathenge indicated that the nominated MCA had failed to attend any House session as well as committee sittings for two years since being sworn in in late 2017.
“The Committee noted that the Honourable Habiba Hussein has neither been attending plenary or committee sittings for the last two years since nomination into the County Assembly,” said Mr Mathenge.
As a consequence, Mr Mathenge said the committee resolved to invoke provisions of Article 194(1) (b) of the Constitution as well as Standing Orders 242 (1) of the Nairobi County Assembly and Section 17(3) (h) of the County Assemblies Powers and Privileges Act, 2017 to advise the Speaker to declare the seat of Ms Hussein vacant.
Ms Elachi subsequently declared the seat vacant leaving the Jubilee Party with 65 members. “I hereby declare the seat of Habiba Hussein vacant. The Secretary-General of the Jubilee Party is aware of the position,” said Ms Elachi.
The Assembly now has 121 MCAs 56 of them the opposition coalition.
Article 194 of the Constitution on vacation of office of member of county assembly where (1) (b) says the office of a member of a county assembly becomes vacant if the member is absent from eight sittings of the assembly without permission, in writing, of the speaker of the assembly, and is unable to offer satisfactory explanation for the absence.
Standing Orders 242 (1) of the Nairobi County Assembly talks of how a seat of an MCA can be declared vacant by the Speaker if one fails to attend plenary sittings after investigations by the Powers and Privileges committee.
