Nairobi Jubilee MCAs have now been summoned by the party’s top leadership as leadership changes stalemate at the county assembly rages.
This comes after Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju called for an urgent meeting of all the ward representatives on Wednesday at the party headquarters without fail.
TUJU’S LETTER
In his letter, Tuju said the meeting, which will commence at 11am, will discuss pertinent party issues.
“This is to request you to attend a consultative meeting at the Jubilee Party headquarters on June 9, 2020. Various pertinent issues of concern to Jubilee membership at the assembly will be discussed. Please prioritise this meeting and be punctual,” said Mr Tuju in the letter dated June 8, 2020.
The meeting was to take place on Tuesday but Tuju, in a follow up, has pushed the meeting to Wednesday.
There has been protracted battle among the Jubilee MCAs over the leadership changes at the assembly with neither of the warring factions willing to back down.
The ruling party had made changes to its leadership at the assembly on April 16, 2020 replacing an interim party leadership who had taken charge in November 12, 2019 after an acrimonious fallout following the return of Speaker Beatrice Elachi to office in October.
However, Ms Elachi insisted that she will only communicate the new leadership after getting a formal communication from the secretary general addressed to her office.
NEW LEADERSHIP
In the changes, Matopeni MCA, Abdi Guyo was reinstated as the Majority Leader, taking over from Dandora Area 3 MCA Charles Thuo, who had been holding the position since November last year.
Mihang’o Ward MCA Paul Kados was appointed the new Majority Whip, replacing nominated MCA June Ndegwa. Mr Guyo is to be deputised by Dandora Area 1 MCA Peter Wanyoike while Mr Kados will be deputised by South B MCA Waithera Chege.
The changes have, however, been contested by the interim leadership, led by Mr Thuo and Ms Ndegwa who claim they ere effected without proper consultation.
Last week, Mr Guyo vowed to take the matter to the party’s secretariat for determination.
This was after Elachi once again failed to communicate the change of leadership of the majority side during assembly’s sitting on Tuesday.
The Speaker insisted that she will need to review a letter from Tuju dated May 28, 2020, which communicated the changes, before taking the next step.
She maintained that the current leadership will remain in office until such a time that she is satisfied that the due process was followed even though she confirmed receiving the letter from the Jubilee Party affirming the change in leadership.
FINAL DETERMINATION
“Jubilee party has to sit down with the party leader to deal with this matter. Before that, this House remains with the same leadership and I will write to Jubilee and we shall deal with that matter next week,” Elachi said.
But the new leadership, led by Mr Guyo, has said it will now raise the matter with Jubilee’s top leadership led by party leader Uhuru Kenyatta for final determination.
“We will follow this matter with the party leader and party secretariat and we are sure that within the course of the week the matter will be solved,” Guyo said.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
“The Speaker is also a member of Jubilee and we are the ones who elected her into the position. We will not resort to chaos as we have party mechanisms to deal with such matters,” he added.
On his part, Mr Kados expressed astonishment at the Speaker’s refusal to communicate the changes which he said contravenes the Constitution, the County Governments Act and the Standing Orders of the Nairobi County Assembly.
“We were shocked to see Speaker Elachi not adhering to the law pushing us to engage in chaos but we could not do that as we respect the law,” the MCA said.
“She has a communication from the party on the changes on majority leadership changes but to our surprise, she said that unless our party leader communicates to her she does not recognise any other leadership.”
