Homa Bay MCAs have elected the county Trade executive Polycarp Okombo as the Speaker of the county assembly.
Okombo will replace Julius Gaya who resigned a week ago.
He emerged the winner after getting 46 votes out of 51 MCAs who participated in the Thursday election at the assembly chambers.
Okombo was followed by Boniface Owino and Dozel Orwa who got two votes each. Innocent Masara was the least candidate with one vote.
Homa Bay County Assembly has 54 MCAs. Two were absent while one was present but abstained from voting.
Deputy Speaker Okings Okomo who presided over the election, said the exercise was conducted transparently.
“The exercise was credible as each candidate had their observer. Okombo has been duly elected as the speaker of the Homa Bay County Assembly after getting more than three-quarters of the total votes cast," Okomo announced.
Okombo was sworn into office immediately after the election.
In his acceptance speech, Okombo promised to unite MCAs in the county assembly to enable them to meet their mandate as lawmakers in the county.
The speaker said he would consult MCAs before he arrive at any decision.
“Unity is strength and united we win and divided we fall. I am calling on members of this house to unite so that this assembly can achieve its goals,” Okombo said.
He said there was a need for collaboration between the county assembly and the executive arm of the county government to enable citizens to get services.
“We need to work together to ensure the people of Homa Bay get the services they deserve,” Okombo said.
He promised to allow MCAs to give their views on discussion in the assembly.
Majority Leader Richard Ogindo urged the speaker to treat the MCAs with respect to enable them to have good relations.
“Mr Speaker, this is a legislative house and these MCAs can build you or destroy you. Let us work in harmony,” Ogindo said.
Gaya resigned when MCAs wanted to impeach him. However, the reasons for his impeachment have not been made public.
“We did not want to destroy Gaya’s career hence we stopped the initiative of impeaching him after he tendered his resignation letter,” Ogindo said.
Okombo will now resign from being the Trade executive.
