UPDATE Tuesday, July 28: Police intervened as Nairobi members of the County Assembly attempted to eject Speaker Beatrice Elachi out of office.
To disperse the crowd, the police lobbed teargas at the lawmakers.
The MCAs, allied to Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko, accused Elachi of abuse of office, corruption and poor leadership.
There was a heavy police presence at City Hall on the morning of Tuesday, July 28, as Nairobi MCAs exchanged blows after storming Speaker Beatrice Elachi's office.
A video that surfaced online showed the MCAs involved in a scuffle at the entrance of Elachi's office with the intention of kicking her out of office.
In the clip, three GSU officers with rifles are seen trying to keep the two rowdy groups from causing chaos at the office.
Reports indicated that one of the rowdy groups was allied to Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko.
Below is the video of police lobbing teargas at MCAS:
TEARGAS lobbed at Nairobi County Assembly premises as anti-Elachi MCAs stage forced entry to serve impeachment motion. pic.twitter.com/mnHvxO42eq
— CapitalFM Breaking News (@BreakingNewsKE) July 28, 2020
The MCAs had kicked off a process of ejecting the speaker on Sunday, July 26, after accusing her of abuse of office, corruption and poor leadership among others.
They claimed that they had managed to collect 51 signatures, a number that surpassed the 42 required to file an impeachment notice.
Other accusations gainst Elachi ranged from victimisation of MCAs and assembly staff, impunity, disregard for the law and county orders, and militarisation of the assembly.
On Monday, July 27, Elachi accused the Nairobi governor of being behind the push to have her removed.
She noted that the MCAs allied to Sonko were unhappy with National Metropolitan Service (NMS) efforts at sealing all loopholes in the county.
"Sonko knows that there is a new clerk who was recently sworn in and he knows that his impeachment can come out of the court now and that is the war he has with me.
"He has been using [Jacob] Ngwele (assembly clerk) in all his cases in court and right now he is very angry because he knows the order that stopped his ouster can be revived now that Ngwele is gone. The impeachment motion is motivated by that," she stated.
Speaker Elachi had gazetted the appointment of Edward Gichana as the new Nairobi County Assembly clerk to replace Ngwele who she accused of colluding with Sonko to frustrate her.
Gichana's appointment was however suspended after Ngwele moved to court challenging his appointment.
Drama as Nairobi MCAs try to eject Speaker Elachi from her office pic.twitter.com/8YZ9JbueKl
— LINCOLN NJOGU (@muriukilincoln) July 28, 2020
