Former Senator Beatrice Elachi elected Nairobi Speaker

Former Nominated Senator Beatrice Elachi, who has been elected Nairobi County Assembly Speaker. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By  Lillian Mutavi

Reporter

Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • The MCAs claimed they could not write and had to be assisted to mark the paper.
  • The event was scheduled to start at 9am but commenced after midday.

Former Nominated Senator Beatrice Elachi has won the Nairobi County Assembly Speaker seat.

Ms Elachi got 90 votes with her closest rival Ali Abdi getting 27 votes. Mr George Wainaina got four votes while Ms Karen Nyamu got one vote.

Ms Elachi contested the Dagoretti North parliamentary seat on a Jubilee Party ticket in the August 8 elections but lost.

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There was dram during the voting exercise Wednesday as some of the Jubilee MCAs had to be assisted to vote after claiming they had ‘injured’ their fingers.

VOTING BOOTH

The MCAs claimed they could not write and had to be assisted to mark the ballot paper.

They were escorted to the voting booth by Ms Elachi's agent, Ruai MCA John Kamangu, who said he is attending to the affected MCAs.

Ms Elachi takes over from former speaker Alex Ole Magelo, who did not defend his seat.

In her maiden speech Ms Elachi promised to serve both the majority and minority in the Assembly.

Mr Kamangu was elected the Deputy Speaker as he was the only one who returned nomination papers.

OATH

Earlier, 122 MCAs took oath of office in a ceremony presided over by Assembly Clerk Jacob Ngwele.

The swearing in ceremony was delayed by three hours following a dispute on the 37 nominated MCAs as both Jubilee and National Super Alliance had obtained court orders.

The event was scheduled to start at 9am but commenced after midday.

When the swearing in ceremony began, some MCAs were forced to repeat after inserting words that were not in the oath.

Karen MCA David Mberia swore in the name of Nasa leader Raila Odinga.

SONKO

He was forced to retake the oath, but repeated Mr Odinga’s name at the end.

"So help me God. God Help Raila," Mr Mberia said.

This sparked protest from Jubilee members, who accused him of "wasting time."

Sarangombe MCA Lawrence Otieno also concluded his oath with the Nasa signature "Raila Tialala"

The public gallery was packed. Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko and Senator Johnston Sakaja followed the proceedings from the gallery.

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