County leaders want Kidero, Shebesh to reconcile

The Nairobi City County Assembly moved fast Saturday to avert an impending court battle  between Governor Evans Kidero and Women’s Representative Rachel Shebesh.

Members now want Speaker Alex ole Magelo to mediate the dispute over the alleged slap on Shebesh and the alleged assault on Kidero at the governor’s office on September 6 after Criminal Investigations Officers indicated there were grounds to prosecute the two.

Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko has indicated he will make a decision this week on recommendations by police to charge the two for assaulting each other. Both Cord and Jubilee urged the two to settle the matter out of court for the sake of political harmony in the city.

“We are ready to bring them together. We are enjoying cordial relations between the coalitions, and we have rolled out several joint development programmes that should not be crippled by the incident,” Mr Magelo said.

He said events preceding the incident could have affected the emotional faculties of the two leaders, and they should not be hanged for it. “People can go overboard in their reaction to certain things. This does not mean they cannot reconcile.”

Cord leaders led by the chairman of the Legal  Affairs committee Jaffer Kassim (Parklands) said they backed a truce between the two. “A mistake happened, but bringing in the police is not the solution. We want the two leaders to reconcile. We urge Ms Shebesh to drop the case,” said Mr Kassim.

Jubilee county reps also said they would love to see both leaders in a working relationship. “We want harmony. A divided leadership will only give city residents a raw deal on development. We support an out-of-court settlement,” the county reps said through Ngara’s Chege Mwaura.

The reactions came hot on heels of revelations on Friday by investigations officer Nicholas Kamwende that there was tangible evidence for the claims of assault by each leader.