Tana River Governor Dhadho Godhana has suffered a blow after three County Executive Committee Members’ nominees he presented to the County Assembly were rejected.
The Tana River Members of County Assembly (MCAs) adopted a report by the appointment committee, the nominee for Water, Joshua Kofa Jara, the nominee for Environment and Abdula Hanti Kanchora the nominee for Public Service.
The County has ten CECMs positions but only three names were forwarded to the County assembly for vetting since the other seven had been retained from Godhana’s first term.
“The governor advertised for eight positions of CECM but only three names were brought to this house for vetting and hence this means that the governor disregarded all legislations related to appointments,” said Kipini West MCA Musa Wario while accepting the report.
He added that the law provided for a fresh vetting of CECM who have been retained adding that the appointments also failed the two-thirds gender rule.
“All CEC retained must come through the assembly and we are not against him but he must follow the law. If we entertain what he is doing then we will be condoning impunity,” he said.
Nominated MCA Maka Maimuna said that although she was from the majority coalition in the assembly, she will always correct the governor when he is conducting himself against the law.
“We love our governor but he must follow the law. As a government we are not opposed to his decisions but he should avail the full list of nominees to the house,” she said.
Governor Godhana enjoys the majority side in the house that is dominated by Azimio La Umoja One Kenya, however the speaker, Osman Nur Galole and his deputy are from the minority side after being candidates of Kenya Kwanza and the rejection of his nominees cast doubts on loyalty of MCAs allied to him.
During the voting, 26 MCAs participated where 16 voted to reject the nominees while eight supported their appointments, two MCAs did not vote.
By Treeza Auma
Treeza Auma is a Digital Content Producer and founder of https://www.ktmn.co.ke KTMN She is also Television journalist at Kenya News Agency and Leadership Accelerator at Women in News.