Nyamira County Assembly leadership has denied a fallout among members after the name of a nominee to the House was omitted in a report.
Yesterday, Speaker Moffat Teya came out to deny any rifts in the Assembly, but failed to explain why Clive Ongwora's name was left out to the Department of Environment, Water, and Natural Resources.
Ongwora's name was expunged from the report that was tabled before the House a week ago. Four other names that were in the report were approved by the Assembly and later appointed to Governor Amos Nyaribo’s Cabinet.
According to Teya, there is no standoff at the assembly, adding, “The report will be tabled before the assembly for debate.”
Members sitting in the Appointment and Vetting as well as in the House Business committees have been trading accusations on who should be held responsible for the failure to table Ongwora's name for debate.
According to the County Assembly Standing Orders, after being cleared by the Appointment and Vetting Committee, the nominee’s name and those of the four others were to be tabled before the assembly for debate.
Approve or reject
The entire House could then either approve or reject the nominee. But this was not the case as only four names that had been cleared by the committee were tabled.
Irene Mayaka, a member of the County Assembly House Committee defended her committee, saying their role was not to edit reports from other committees.
“There is no way we could have gone further to analyse the report and make a decision on what content is to be tabled. All committees in the assembly have independence of tabling signed and finalised reports that ought not to be edited or amended prior to debate in the assembly.”
She said last Thursday before the assembly went for recess, she did raise an inquiry on the floor of the House on why Ongwora’s name was expunged from the report, but she did not get an answer.
“Much as we are undertaking our assembly roles, it will give me joy and pride that Nyamira has a youthful County Executive Member who is qualified. Let the right thing be done; bring the name back and we will approve it,” she added.
Duke Mosiori, who is a member of the Vetting and Appointing Committee, said Article 35 of the County Government Act, 2012 demands that marginalised groups must be catered for while constituting the County Executives.
