Twist as court stops leadership changes at Garissa Assembly

A push and pull continue to be witnessed at the Garissa County Assembly following leadership wrangles pitting to the majority Azimio coalition.

This follows a change of leadership on Thursday that has now been quashed by the court and a stay order issued against any plan to change the leadership.

In the changes that were addressed to the Assembly speaker Abdi Idle on Tuesday, first-time Galbet ward MCA Abubakar Khalif was replaced by Dadaab MCA  Mohamed Abdi Farah who is serving his third consecutive term.

Other changes saw Sankuri ward MCA Abdirahman Borr replaced by Abdirahman Muktar as the deputy Majority leader.

Ahmed Abdirahman Sheikh, MCA liboi was to be the  Majority whip replacing Abdi Ibrahim while Timira Bashir was the Deputy majority whip.

Mahat Abdikadir is the new County assembly service board member replacing Omar Abdi Hassan.

The ousted members led Khalif and his team to move to court to challenge their ouster.

The court order seen by the Star directed:

"Pending the hearing and determination of the application, an interim order is hereby issued staying the implementation of the decision and the declaration of the speaker of the county Assembly pursuant to two letters dated 3rd September and 2023 on the replacement of the 1st and 2nd complainants as the Majority party and Majority Whip in the County Assembly of Garissa."

"The Notice of Motion application dated 7th September 2023 be and is hereby certified urgent for consideration ex-parte in this first instance only," read part of the court order.

The Azimio Coalition has also since distanced itself from the change of its leadership that was carried out.

"That pending the hearing and determination of this Application, this Honorable Tribunal hereby issues a temporary order retraining the 1st and 2nd Respondents from assuming or continuing to assume or hold the office of the leader of Majority party and Majority Whip in the County Assembly of Garissa," the court further directed.

In a letter dated 7th  September and addressed to the Assembly speaker, signed by Junet Mohamed and copied to all the MCAs who had been replaced, the coalition dismissed the new changes and instead said that the status quo remains.

“It has been brought to our attention of a communication dated 3rd September 2023 and received in your office on 5th September 2023 purporting to change the leadership of the Majority party/coalition in the Garissa County Assembly,” the letter read in part.

“At no given time as the Coalition party, we have sanctioned the said changes in the County Assembly."

The ODM party also later issued a statement to confirm the same.

The ousted Majority leader who is serving his first term took to his Facebook page to hit out at those who carried out the changes which he referred to as a ‘coup’.

“In the last few days, we have witnessed what I would call a coup which was engineered and orchestrated by among others the County Assembly speaker purporting to remove me and my fellow honourable members from party positions in the house in our absentia.”

“For the record, the changes have since been REVOCKED by the highest organ of the party leadership in Nairobi as can be seen in the attached letter simply because the due process was not followed. It should be noted that the speaker cannot purport or whoever is pushing it cannot purport to push the speaker to make changes without the knowledge of the mother party,” read part of his post.

He said that there was no day the party sat to discuss his conduct adding that nobody had raised any complaint against him.

The Majority leader promised to continue discharging his duties as he has done before.