Nairobi Members of County Assembly (MCAs) on Tuesday elected Ngara MCA Chege Mwaura to replace Speaker Beatrice Elachi on a temporary basis.
The ward reps overwhelmingly voted in the member for Ngara during a heated session that was coloured with fights.
Mwaura had been serving as the Majority Chief Whip in the house before his election.
MCAs quickly pulled down the name plaque at Elachi’s office soon after the vote, replacing it with one that read the Ngara member’s name.
Deputy speaker John Kamangu had been conducting the assembly sessions since the forceful removal of Elachi from office and her subsequent impeachment.
The MCAs ignored a court order that had granted stay orders to Elachi despite the ouster by MCAs.
“As far as we are concerned, Elachi is no longer the speaker of this assembly. She might have been reinstated but as her employers, we do not recognize her as a substantive speaker.
“We are employers of the speaker and she has to follow the same procedure we used to oust her in that even if she comes back she has to be voted to be the speaker. We cannot work in an assembly retrogressively,” Minority Whip Peter Imwatok had explained ahead of the vote.
The MCA further added that the House is ready to discuss an impeachment motion against Governor Mike Sonko after replacing the speaker.
“Last month we raised very serious issues with the Governor and we are not going back. The Governor risks impeachment if he doesn’t honour what we asked him to do,” Imwatok stated.