MCA injured in fight over Obado's ouster

A ward representative was yesterday injured while several others scampered for safety after chaos erupted at the Migori County Assembly.

Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) have been at loggerheads over Governor Okoth Obado's impeachment plans.

Two factions have now been formed with each claiming the leadership of the House.

Yesterday, dramatic scenes were witnessed at the county assembly as supporters of two ward representatives claiming the seat of speaker engaged in a scuffle. North Kanyamkago MCA George Omamba and Bukira East MCA Mathews Chacha are claiming the seat.

Trouble started when Omamba, who got orders from Migori High Court, attempted to chair the morning session before a splinter group walked in to disrupt the proceedings. The MCAs ejected him from his chair.

Moments later, MCAs allied to the different factions started raining blows on each other as the sergeant-at-arms fled the debating chambers with the mace.

The scuffle lasted for several minutes and when the dust finally settled, nominated MCA Mary Ogodo was nursing injuries and had to be rushed by some of her colleagues to St Joseph Mission Hospital.

Jacky Gad, a nominated MCA who accompanied Ogodo to hospital, told The Standard that she suffered a broken arm.

“There is no cause for alarm. It is only her left arm that has been broken but she is in stable condition,” Gad said.

Some ward reps claimed Omamba is not the deputy speaker and accused him of attempting to hijack proceedings to push for the impeachment of Mr Obado.

Omamba was impeached by his colleagues in May last year. He challenged the decision in court and on Tuesday a Migori court reinstated him.

The assembly has not known peace since ODM directed its members to impeach the embattled governor.

This comes as the ODM party remained adamant that the ward representatives must proceed with the impeachment motion.

Although the notice is yet to be tabled in the House, an ODM MCA who sought anonymity said they have already kicked off the process and have started drafting the grounds for impeachment.

"We are aware some of our colleagues are opposed to the process and that is why they want to create chaos in the assembly but they will not succeed. We will debate the motion as soon as it is ready," said the MCA.

According to the Majority Leader Ken Ouma, the mission to impeach Obado is still in progress. He claimed the chaos that rocked the county assembly yesterday was as a result of a misunderstanding by the deputy speaker who had earlier been impeached.

Obtained orders

Ouma said they held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the leadership wrangles after Omamba obtained orders reinstating him.

"The deputy speaker was impeached but he did not follow the right procedures to come back to the assembly," said Ouma.

Obado is facing corruption charges in which he is accused of indirectly receiving over Sh73 million through his children who received multiple payments from companies trading with Migori County Government.

Statements by the office of the DPP show that an audit trail of the money paid to various companies led to persons closely related to Obado.

Some of the companies used to embezzle county funds include Misoft Company Limited, Tarchdog Printers, Deltrack ICT Service, Seletrack Consultants, Mactebac Contractors, Joyush Business, Atinus Services, Kajulu Business, Swyfcon Engineering, Victorius Investments, Dolphus Softwares, Dankey Press and Pesulus Services.