Governor Sonko asks assembly to vet cabinet nominees

Governor Mike Sonko has asked Nairobi County Assembly to speed up the vetting of five executive nominees.

Last month, Governor Sonko, who made changes to his cabinet, nominated two new faces into the 10-member unit and elevated some chief officers into ministers.

This was prompted by the resignation of former Education Executive Janet Muthoni Ouko and the sacking of   Health and Devolution executives Hitan Majevdia and Veska Kangogo.

Former ICT and E-government executive Emmah Muthoni’s contract was not renewed.

The new faces are Dr Stella Bosire, (Health Services), former nominated legislator Sanjeev Birdi (Environment) and Economic Planning chief officer Winfred Kathangu, who will now be in charge of the Finance docket. Education chief officer Lucia Mulwa will head Education department.

VETTING PROCESS

Ms Pauline Kahiga-Waititu, the current acting county secretary, will be in charge of the Public Service docket.

The names are expected to be submitted for vetting by Nairobi County Assembly Appointments Committee which is chaired by the Assembly acting Speaker Chege Mwaura.

 “I want the assembly to fast track the vetting process of the five nominees so that they can start working,” said Mr Sonko in Nairobi on Wednesday.

At the same time, Majority Leader Abdi Guyo warned that the assembly would impeach any county executive committee member who snubs committee summons.

Mr Guyo claimed that some executive committee members often ignored summons, making it difficult to review   audit queries by the Auditor General.   

He said that ward reps could not access development progress reports on time.

OVERSIGHT POWERS

 “It is time that we sent some of these executives home for being an impediment to development. I urge committee members to exercise their oversight powers objectively. We will not allow errant county executives to hinder us from delivering our pledges to the people,” said Guyo.

 Governor Sonko encouraged the MCAs to deal with the defiant members of his cabinet.  

He, however, asked members of the committees to respect the executive.  The governor said that most CECs and chief officers had complained of harassment whenever they appeared before the committees.

“All my officials will honour summons by the assembly, and if they don’t I’m ready to appear before the committees for grilling,” he said.

In December last year, a report by the county assembly implementation committee castigated five CECs for not honouring committee invitations.