Chaos, teargas at City Hall as MCAs attempt to kick out Elachi from office.

The Nairobi City Hall was on Tuesday home to chaos after a section of MCAs allied to Governor Sonko attempted to serve Speaker Beatrice Elachi an impeachment motion with signatures from 59 MCAs. The attempt by the lawmakers was repulsed by a heavy contingent of police who lobbed teargas inside the assembly to disperse the crowd. This is the second attempt by the MCAs to remove Elachi in office after another impeachment motion in 2018 where 103 out of 107 ward reps voted to oust her amid accusations of abuse of office, conflict of interest, undermining the County service board. They accused the speaker of abuse of office, divisive leadership and what they termed as ‘disrespect’ to other office holders.

Caught in the stand-off between the MCAs and speaker Elachi is Edward Gichana whose gazettment as Clerk of the County Assembly was suspended by the Employment and Labour Relations Court on Tuesday. Gichana had been sworn in to replace Jacob Ngwele, who had made a comeback to office after nine months.

Speaker Elachi allegedly locked herself in her office and insisted that Ngwele was a visitor and no longer the clerk of the assembly.  MCAs say that the approval of Gichana as clerk was through a virtual meeting only attended by Elachi’s allies.