NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 22 — Dramatic of events unfolded at the Nairobi County Assembly on Thursday after Kenya Kwanza-allied Members of County Assembly stormed out of a vetting exercise for ICT and Energy Chief Officer Nominee Lucky Ogutu Okudo citing integrity concerns.
The legislators singled out Okudo over chaos witnessed at IEBC’s National Tallying Center in Bomas during the announcement of presidential election results.
The team led by Minority Leader Anthony Kiragu also cited failure to submit the necessary credentials by the nominee as another reason they could not participate in the vetting exercise they termed as an illegality.
Kiragu, also the Waithaka MCA, displayed a notice from the Office of the Clerk showing that as at December 21, the nominee had not submitted her documents as required by the law.
“As Kenya Kwanza we cannot not participate in an illegality, how can we gauge a nominee’s suitability without going through a credentials?” posed Kiragu.
“We also saw what went down at Bomas and the said nominee was pictured pickpocketing phones and behaving like a goon. That’s not the kind of a leader that Nairobi residents want,” he added.
During the Bomas incident, Ogutu clad in camouflage made headlines after she emerged in a fracas witnesses during the tallying process.
The move came as a surprise given Sakaja is aligned to the Kenya Kwanza Alliance under which he was elected on a UDA ticket.
Reacting to the development, the committee’s Vice Chairperson Robert Alai dismissed the claims saying the move by the Kenya Kwanza MCAs was ill-motivated to sabotage the exercise.
The Kileleshwa MCA said the MCAs should have instead sat through the exercise and air their views.
“I don’t think they walked out because of an illegality, I think they had clear instructions to ensure that the nominee is not vetted,” Alai stated.
“Let’s not be unfair to people because tomorrow some people will say the wouldn’t hire you because they don’t like your ex-employee,” he added.
Ogutu is among 33 Chief Officers nominated by Governor Sakaja, who were vetted by various sectoral committees on Thursday.
