City Hall was a circus on Monday, January 20, when members of the County Assembly of Nairobi arrived alongside goons picked from the streets to demand the exit of the acting Finance CEC Pauline Kahiga.
A report published by the Daily Nation on Tuesday, January 21, indicated that the goons, led by 10 Nairobi MCAs, wanted Kahiga out over allegations that she was frustrating Nairobi residents.
Minutes before 11 a.m., the group is reported to have stormed the county assembly with allegations that Kahiga was in office illegally and needed to instead move back to her Lands docket for which she was initially appointed.
The publication indicated that by the times the goons got to the office, Kahiga had already gotten wind of their arrival and left to report the matter to the KICC Police Station.
At the center of the disagreement is Ksh1.4 billion, which was released by the Treasury in December 2019 to the pave way for the settling of county bills.
Minority Whip Peter Imwatok indicated that the embattled Kahiga made the decision to only pay lawyers and other suppliers whose bills had been documented, causing an uproar from others who began to seek her removal.
Imwatok intimated that Kahiga had been operating on instructions from the National Treasury that she gives preference to the youth, women, people with disabilities, and small-scale traders who did business with City Hall and have properly documented bills.
Her stance on the payments is also reported to have caused a fallout with Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko who allegedly wanted other bills that had not been properly documented to be cleared too.
Imara Daima MCA Kennedy Obuya, however, dismissed the information given by Imwatok and claimed that the reason he led other MCAs to storm the office was that Kahiga had been there illegally.
"She has not been appointed to work there. She has another docket. How can she hold two dockets?" We cannot Sit back as MCAs and yet our job is oversight"
"Even if it requires a citizen's arrest, we will do that. She is working hard to frustrate citizens of Nairobi," he stated.
The MCAs later installed the CEC for Trade Allan Igambi to act in Kahiga's capacity.
