There was chaos at the Nyandarua County Assembly on Tuesday afternoon after a group of men wearing black suits stormed the chambers and tried to steal the Speaker's Mace.
The raid is reported to have occurred barely two hours after MCAs unanimously passed the Constitution Amendment Bill 2020.
The group of five heavily -built men are said to have tried to take away the mace leading to a fistfight between two factions allied to impeached Speaker Ndegwa Wahome and Governor Francis Kimemia.
MCAs allied to Wahome did not take kindly the court ruling that confirmed his impeachment hence tried to stop the assembly’s proceedings by hiring the men in black.
The move was meant to prevent deputy speaker Zackary Njeru from chairing house businesses.
Speaker’s Mace is the symbol of authority within the chamber. Without its presence in the chamber, the assembly cannot lawfully meet, debate or pass laws.
After 30 minutes of an altercation in the assembly, police were police intervened and arrested Gatimu Ward MCA Kieru Wambui, a close ally of Wahome.
Assembly Majority Leader Ednard Kingori confirmed he informed the police after the men in black raided the assembly premises at around 2.30 pm and broke into the office where the mace is kept.
"We were in a kamukunji when we were informed that a group had raided the office. We rushed to the assembly only to find men clad in black suits trying to take away the mace,” he said.
“We called the police and eventually one of our MCAs who is said to have organised the raid was arrested."
He asked those who were opposing the speaker’s ouster to respect the court ruling.
"Let us follow the law so that we can bring sobriety to our assembly. Our people will judge us on what we do here" he said.
MCAs allied to Governor Kimemia have since vowed to camp at the assembly and have police guard the mace.
A Nakuru court earlier on Tuesday upheld the impeachment of Wahome who is also the chair of the County Assemblies Forum.
