All 123 members of the Nairobi County Assembly will on Thursday vote for their fourth speaker.
This process comes immediately after the MCAs take an oath of office.
The MCAs are supposed to be 124 but the Utawala ward is yet to conduct elections.
Once the Governor states the place and date for the first sitting of a new assembly as provided for in Section 7 (B) of the County Governments (Amendment) Act, 2020, the Clerk publishes a gazette notice inviting applications.
Interested persons are thereafter required to submit their nomination papers for election to the office of the Speaker at least 48 hours before the sitting day.
A candidate is required to obtain the names and signatures of 10 members who support his bid.
Upon the close of the nomination period, the Clerk publicises and makes available to all members, a list showing all qualified candidates, and provides MCAs with copies of the curriculum vitae of the qualified candidates.
In this case Clerk Edward Gichana on Wednesday announced that Kennedy Ng’ondi and Hassan Robow were the only two candidates who qualified for the speaker’s election.
At least two hours before the sitting of the assembly, the clerk prepares ballot papers upon bearing the names of all candidates validly nominated.
Secret Ballot
As highlighted in the Nairobi City County Assembly Standing Order 7, the election of the Speaker shall be by secret ballot.
The clerk shall preside over the elections.
Before voting begins, the clerk is required to empty the ballot box, display it to the House in the presence of the members, and lock the box which is to be kept in the full view of the House until the conclusion of the ballot.
The Clerk shall issue not more than one ballot paper to each MCA who wishes to vote before proceeding to a designated area provided by the Clerk for voting.
If a member makes an error in the ballot paper, he is allowed to return it to the Clerk and obtain another in its place. The Clerk shall immediately cancel and destroy the paper returned.
The Clerk shall make arrangements to enable any member with a disability to vote.
After the vote by MCAs, the clerk will proceed and unlock the box to examine the ballot papers.
Withdrawal
A candidate may withdraw their names through a clerk before voting starts. In the event of such withdrawal, the Clerk shall cross out the name of that candidate from the ballot papers.
The person shall not be elected as Speaker, unless supported in a ballot by the votes of two-thirds of all members, in this case, 81 MCAs.
If no candidate is supported by two-thirds of the votes, the candidate who received the highest number of votes on the ballot shall be elected Speaker.
Immediately the results are declared, all the ballot papers used in the election of a Speaker shall be packed and sealed in the presence of the County Assembly and kept in the custody of the Clerk for a period of six months and shall thereafter be destroyed.
But despite the provisions, if there is a candidate who has been nominated for election as Speaker at the expiry of the nomination period, they shall be declared to have been elected Speaker without any ballot or vote.
Following the election of the Speaker, the Clerk shall immediately administer the Oath or Affirmation of Office to the Speaker in the presence of the assembled County Assembly.
The same process is followed for the deputy speaker’s position but in this case, the Speaker will preside over the election.
The role of the Speaker is to preside over debates of the county assembly at every sitting, maintain assembly attendance register and orders, relevant statute and assembly traditions, procedures and practices.
Besides being the spokesperson of the assembly, the Speaker ensures the dignity of the assembly is upheld, disciplines MCAs for misconduct and administers the oath of affirmation or allegiance to members.
The late AFC Leopards chairman Alex Ole Magelo was the first speaker of the Nairobi County Assembly in 2013.
He secured 43 votes to beat his opponent Mutunga Mutungi who amassed a vote less in the contest handing him the role of controlling the County Assembly.
Magelo, the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy candidate, trounced his closest rival from the Jubilee coalition by securing 43 votes, former City Hall councillor Mutanga Mutungi by one vote.
Dagoretti MP Beatrice Elachi on September 6, 2017, won the Speaker’s seat.
Elachi got 90 votes with her closest rival Ali Abdi getting 27 votes, George Wainaina got four votes and Karen Nyamu got one vote.
Elachi had then contested the Dagoretti North parliamentary seat on a Jubilee Party ticket in the August 8 elections but lost.
Following her resignation in August 2020, former Makadara MP Benson Mutura was elected as Nairobi’s third speaker after receiving 99 out of 122 votes in the first round.
