Nairobi County Assembly speaker Beatrice Elachi and ousted majority leader Abdi Guyo had a private meeting on Tuesday, January 7, 2020, set aside their differences in a bid to rally majority members of county assembly behind them in a move that could lead to an impeachment of Nairobi governor Mike Sonko.
In a report published by Citizen TV, the two who have for long remained political enemies were holed up in an over three-hour meeting whose tone was anti-Sonko where they later gave a statement on the leadership quandary in the county government following the governor’s arrest and arraignment.
“As an Assembly, we wish to strongly state categorically that we are aware that there is a leadership issue within the Nairobi City County Government after the Governor was arrested and charged with issues relating to corruption,” read the statement in part.
Further, the two announced their support for the ongoing war against corruption promising to remain impartial.
“We want to tell Nairobians that the era of corruption, nepotism, intimidation, favouritism and victimization is history in the Nairobi County Government,” added the statement.
In a move that appears to go against Governor Sonko’s actions and opinions, the two indicated that they would recall over 100 county officers including CECs earlier suspended by the governor except for those facing litigation.
“It is not usual labour practice to suspend staff using WhatsApp forum and still maintain them on full pay.”
“Over 100 key staff of the County Government of Nairobi on suspension are hereby instructed to return to work and perform their important duty of serving mwananchi who are the taxpayers,” added the joint statement.
The county speaker went further and instructed the County Public Service Board to process all the suspensions and ensure the affected staff reported to work within two weeks.
“All County CECs who were also suspended in similar manner are hereby notified to report back to their offices for smooth running of the operations of the county,” the statement instructed.
On Monday, January 6, Sonko nominated Ann Kananu Mwenda as deputy governor, an action Elachi promised to address in line with the Jubilee Party and the law once the assembly resumed from recess.
From September 2019, the supremacy battle rocked the air between Elachi and Guyo leading to Guyo’s removal as the majority leader.
This resulted to Guyo’s supporters storming Elachi’s office at the county headquarters associating her with the plot to forcibly change the county leadership.
