Chaos was again witnessed at the Garissa County Assembly on Thursday forcing the police to come in and restore sanity.
This time, it happened during the house business committee meeting at the assembly chambers leaving the house vandalized.
Chaos started when the Assembly speaker Abdi Idle was in the chambers presiding over the House Business Committee.
Opposing sides of the Assembly are now calling on the investigation agencies to look into the chaos that erupted.
According to the speaker, all hell broke loose and in a split second, he found himself sandwiched between tables in the chambers and had to be whisked by the sergeant at arms to safety.
Speaking to the press at his office after the disarray, the county assembly speaker while flanked by the Clerk Mohamed Santur said that even though he had been rescued by the sergeant-at-arms and some of the members present in committee, the opposing MCAs allegedly followed him to his office wanting to cause a fight.
“While I was in the house presiding over a very important committee of the assembly, three of the members who were there kicked the chairs, and sandwiched me between the chairs but luckily I was rescued and whisked away by the sergeant-at-arms through the back door,” Idle said.
While faulting the ousted majority leader Abubakar Khalif and Sankuri MCA Abdirahaman Ali for the chaos, the speaker called on the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Ethic and Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the matter and hold accountable those found to have broken the law.
He added:
“Lucky enough I was saved and whisked through the back door by the sergeant-at-arms and other members of the committee who were there thanks to them.
When the visited the assembly, it was vandalized.
On the issue of the changes in the Majority leadership at the assembly, the speaker said that the matter is already in the court and that the members should be patient enough to wait for the outcome of the court process.
“There was also a spray that made our eyes and made us cough. Those members then vandalized the house and left broken chairs all over the house,” he added.
While defending themselves against the accusations, ousted Majority leader Khalif pointed an accusing finger at the Assembly speaker saying that he had decided to take sides instead of being a neutral arbiter
“What happened in the chambers was unexpected. We want the police to investigate this matter urgently because we suspect the speaker to be behind the chaos," Khalif said.
He said that the house has CCTV cameras and that the security agencies should look at the footage to establish what exactly happened.
On his part, the Sankuri MCA wondered why the speaker came to the chambers with his bodyguard who he said is not allowed to be in the proceedings of the house.
“We have a sergeant at arms in this house who is capable of doing his work, what was the bodyguard of the speaker doing in the chambers? We are going to write to the Inspector General of police to provide us with security because we feel like our lives are being threatened,” he added.
Minority leader Hussein Dagane while condemning the incident said that it was sad for members to continuously fight and cause chaos on the floor of the house something he said was only tainting the image of the honorable house.
“It is very sad for honourable members to fight and cause chaos like that. I want to completely disapprove of the actions. I want to condemn and apologize to the speaker following the incident because the speaker is constitutionally the chairperson of every crucial committee in the county assembly.”
He said that the contested matters were already in court urging both parties to be patient as the matter is handled by the courts.
He called on the clerk to take care of the welfare of members saying that as it stands, members don’t feel safe because of the unfolding events.
“I Want to urge the clerk who is the CEO of the assembly to protect members when on the floor of the house and even in the precincts of the assembly. Because some unknown substance can find its way in the house and sprayed then what that means is that some members can carry guns and knives,” he said.
The house has been divided for the past few weeks after the speaker effected contested changes of the house majority leadership, a matter which has since been in the Garissa high court.