Kiambu county speaker ousted from office

Kiambu County assembly speaker Nick Ndichu has become the first county assembly speaker to be removed from office.

Mr Ndichu set the record on Tuesday when he was voted out by an overwhelming majority of Members of the Kiambu County assembly in a motion that took less than two hours to debate.

In a motion moved to the floor of the house by Ndeiya ward representative, Nelson Munga, the members accused the speaker of financial impropriety, violating the Public Procurement and Disposal Act and using derogatory language to members and staff of the county assembly.

Mr Munga accused the speaker of authorising the finance department to pay for his costs to Brazil totalling to Sh530,000 for an annual Law Society of Kenya retreat on November 30, 2013 which was not sanctioned by the interim clerk of the assembly and was also not a part of his work.

Mr Munga said that given the timeline, it was not possible that the speaker went on the trip at all but used it as a means to defraud tax payers money.

He further accused the speaker defrauding the Public Procurement and Disposal Act by ignoring a list of suppliers that had been prequalified by the assembly and single handedly picking a law firm of his choice to represent the assembly in a legal suit.

The speaker was also accused of intimidation and using derogatory language to the members and one time told a member to use what was 'between his ears'.

But before allowing members to discuss the motion, the Deputy Assembly Speaker Anthony Macharia gave the speaker a chance to be heard.

"Inline with the County Government Act, the speaker is entitled to a chance to be heard before the motion is discussed" said Mr Macharia.

In his defence, the speaker defended his trip to Brazil saying that this invitation had been extended to all speakers of county assemblies who are also members of the Law Society of Kenya.

He tabled an invitation letter inviting him to attend the retreat in Brazil from November 22-29 , 2013 together with copies of his passport and a Brazilian Visa.

"It is dishonest for the mover to tell members that I did not travel to Brazil while I have the required proof of travel" Mr Ndichu said.

He also defended his decision to pick a law firm to represent the assembly saying that the suit was filed under urgency and that the Public Procurement and Disposal Act gave provision for single sourcing if it was a matter of urgency.

"It has been said here that I contravened the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, but I want to assure you that all laws were complied to. The Act provides a provision for an entity to single source it there is an urgent need" Mr Ndichu said.

He said that he was just being persecuted for fighting for independence of the assembly from the executive of the county government.

"As I stand here today, I don't stand to defend myself as Mr Ndichu. I stand here to defend myself as a believer of the rule of law. I am strong believer of the independence of the assembly from the Executive" said Mr Ndichu.

He asked the members of assembly to be objective and sober in discussing his ouster.

" Political persecution is not a new thing in Kiambu, so let us do what we can look back to in future and say we did a good thing. Let the removal of a speaker from office be based on the constitution," he said.

" If every time we have an issue with the speaker we are going to send him home, am not sure how many speakers we will have at the end of five years," he added.

This is the second time that the Kiambu county assembly speaker faced a motion to remove him from office.

In July last year, a similar motion was introduced but flopped because the assembly was not fully constituted.