Mombasa MCAs on Tuesday unanimously rejected the nomination of John Kiprop as the Chief Officer for Renewable Energy and Natural Resources.
The MCAs cited a lack of clarity in documents submitted by Kiprop.
Kiprop is among the 16 appointments made by Governor Abdulswamad Nassir in February.
In a report tabled by the Water, Natural resources and climate change committee chairperson Leila Nyache, Kiprop holds a PHD in Environment economics from University of Eldoret and Masters degree in Environmental studies from the same institute.
He also holds a Bachelor degree in environmental studies from Kenyatta University and a diploma in project management from Kenya institute of management with 20 years of working experience.
He also worked at the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture project as environment and social safeguard compliance officer in 2019. He was also county coordinator in 2022 in the same company.
However the MCAs rejected the report saying it did not have clarity.
According to the deputy speaker Fadhili Makarani, Kiprop was rejected by the house because his report, which was tabled by the committee, was weak and could not defend him well.
“Despite being approved by the committee members after going through the vetting process and interview, the house rejected him saying his report was not clear,” he said.
Makarani said according to how the report was written from beginning to the end, there were so many things which were not relating. He said the report did not inform the house what skills the nominee has to be able to work for Mombasa county people.
During the session, Makarani said Kiprop's academic profession was not clearly explained in the observations made by the committee, and that his diploma qualification was not mentioned.
“We are not sure if the diploma was just added there because if it really existed, the committee would have informed us on their observation part,” he said.
He said Kiprop was said to have served as a county commissioner cadet in the 2014, where he was serving in the position of assistant county commissioner. However, in the observation, the nominee is said to have served the position but at the same time he acted as a chief.
“In the same report, it stated that the nominee was a secondary school teacher in January 2004 to 2006, and also served as a teacher in a primary school. But there is no indication that he is a qualified teacher,” he said.
“When he was asked how he will work for the county, he said according to the report issued, that as a county chief officer, he is answerable to the county executive member and his duty will be to implement policy. But we know very well that implementation of the policies is the duty of the CEC, therefore in my opinion, the nominee was not aware on which role he is coming to play in our county.”
The rejected nominee will be taken back to the governor who will have to nominate another person.
Nyache said they were satisfied that Kiprop qualifies for the position after going through his documents.
“What made us choose the nominee as the suitable person for the position is that he is qualified academically. Also, the work which he has been doing, goes hand in hand with the position he applied for,” she said.
Nominated MCA Hamida Noor who is also a member of the committee said they were satisfied with whatever was presented to them by Kiprop during his interview and that is why they saw him as a qualified nominee.
Sylvester Kai, who also supported the motion, said the nominee deserved the position because he is qualified.
In the same session Pauline Oginga who served as chief officer in the department of public health was approved to take over the same position in the department of environment and solid waste management.
The approval process of the 16 nominated chief officers was tabled in the house on Tuesday 25, and so far, 10 chief officers have been approved and one rejected.