THE STAR: Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has revealed that he consulted President William Ruto before he made any appointments at the county.
He said that it is Ruto who advised him and gave him a green light for the appointments.
“President Ruto who is also my party leader understands Nairobi and the situation. I told the President that despite being a UDA governor, Azimio coalition occupies the majority in the Nairobi County Assembly and that there is no way my administration could deliver without working with them,” Sakaja said.
“I heard the President’s advice, he gave me the go-ahead.”
Following Sakaja’s appointment of the cabinet and chief officers, UDA Nairobi MCAs had said the governor was consulting Azimio MCAs, forgetting that he was a UDA governor.
However, the governor said that he had to work with all MCAs without favouring any side of the house as he was elected to serve all Nairobi residents and not only the UDA supporters.
“If you look at the last election in Nairobi, in the Presidential vote Azimio got the majority, we lost the Senate and Woman Rep seat, out of the 17 MP seats UDA only managed four, the same case with MCAs they are the majority with a margin of about 15 and in this scenario, nothing would have sailed through if I didn’t do that,” Sakaja said.
He said that not being on good terms with Azimio could affect the budget passage as the opposition are the majority in the assembly.
“Without a budget, there is nothing that can happen in the county, and as a leader, you must make certain decisions for things to work and that’s what I did,” Sakaja said.
According to Sakaja, Azimio had demanded five out of the 10 CEC posts but he only allocated them three slots.
In addition, the governor hailed the Azimio leadership for allowing the UDA party to take seven chairmanship slots in committees and four vice chairs even though they are the minority.
With Azimio being the majority, this meant that it will chair all committees except the Public Accounts Committee, Public Investment Committee and Implementation, which goes to the minority side of the house.
However, in a surprising move, Azimio left four other committees to the President William Ruto-led UDA.
The agriculture committee will be chaired by Kasarani MCA Antony Ngaruiya, Kawangware MCA Fred Njogu(ICT), Githurai MCA Deonysias Waithira (Trade) and Dandora I ward rep Allan Maina(Labour).
PAC will be chaired by Ngara MCA Chege Mwaura, PIC by California MCA Hashim Kamau and Implementation by minority leader Antony Kiragu.
Majority leader Peter Imwatok said that the decision was a sign of good faith and cordial working relationship with the opposition.
