Sakaja Given Deadline To Declare If He Supports Azimio
A section of them had faulted the county boss over his recent appointments to various county government positions and the criteria he used in the process.
Marvin Chege 
Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) in Nairobi, affiliated with the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party under President William Ruto, have demanded that Governor Johnson Sakaja declares his true political stance in one month.
A section of them had faulted the county boss over his recent appointments to various county government positions and the criteria he used in the process.
The MCAs led by the Leader of the Minority in the Assembly, Anthony Kiragu argued that the governor failed to consult with the party leaders before making appointments to his administration.
They also accused Sakaja of favouring the Azimio la Umoja coalition over the Kenya Kwanza coalition in his appointments, thus raising questions regarding where his loyalties lie, given that he was resoundingly elected to the county seat on a UDA ticket in the August 9 elections.
“He was elected on a UDA ticket but he has never consulted anyone from the party before making appointments. We are giving him one month to come out and declare that he belongs in the Azimio coalition so that we can know the next course of action,” Kiragu said.
Minority Chief Whip Mark Ronaldo Mugambi weighed in by demanding Sakaja to reorganise his appointments within the next month to reflect the good deeds of the UDA party.
"Let him reach out to the party leadership and apologise for what he has done and rectify. The party mobilised voters in Nairobi who believed in him because he used the UDA flag,” Mugambi told the Nation.
Majority Leader Peter Imwatok, allied with Azimio, however, accused the MCAs of using politics to disrupt normal service delivery to the county.
“Sakaja’s appointments were based on regional balancing. Let them not trivialise the actions of the governor. The Kenya Kwanza MCAs are good people but there’s someone who is trying to influence them.
“I want to assure Nairobi residents that the assembly is stable. Most of the MCAs are new; they should focus on understanding the proceedings of the assembly instead of being used,” he said.
Nairobi MCAs disrupted and walked out of a vetting session for a Lighting and Energy Chief Officer nominee last week and also snubbed a special session during which the assembly approved the names of 28 Chief Officers nominated by Sakaja.
The nominee was 30-year-old oil expert Lucky Ogutu Okudo who went viral in the middle of the counting of votes in the August polls when she was filmed by national TV cameras inside the Bomas of Kenya in the middle of chaos at the National Tallying Centre which began on Saturday night, August 13, with her name trending subsequently on social media.
Kiragu also urged Sakaja to focus on solving problems for Nairobi residents instead of engaging in blame games that are derailing the delivery of services to residents, thus joining the likes of former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Sonko blasted Sakaja's declaration of a crackdown on all night clubs in residential areas and his plans to kick out matatus from the Central Business District (CBD), especially those plying the Nyanza, Western Kenya and Rift Valley routes and moving them to the Green Park terminus.
"If Sakaja continues to harass Nairobi business people we will mobilise people and send him home. We can also make the city ungovernable for him and finally send him home just like the first governor," Sonko stated on Monday, December 26.
Gachagua had fired a warning shot to Sakaja against making any knee-jerk announcements regarding the operations of the Nairobi CBD, reminding him that he mobilised residents of the vote-rich Mt Kenya region to vote for him.
