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Nairobi City County Assembly has failed to consistently raise quorum for the last one month.
Since coming from a short recess in July 18, 2023 the assembly has been struggling to raise quorum.
According to standing order 37 (1)
“A quorum of the County Assembly or Committee of the whole County shall be a third of it’s members,” reads the standing order.
Previously commenting on why the members have not been attending sittings, UDA Chief Whip and Umoja 1 MCA Mark Mugambi said the MCA’s have been failing to attend the sitting specifically after the SRC scrapped the plenary sitting allowance.
“After SRC scrapped the plenary sitting allowance, the MCA’s do not even feel motivated to use their fuel and come for sittings that they do not receive allowance for. We are still looking forward to it being restored,” Mugambi stated.
On the Contrary, his counterpart Majority Whip and Kilimani MCA
Moses Ogeto said the MCA’s do not need to be paid for them to attend the plenary sitting because that’s what they were elected for.
During the Azimio demonstrations against the government, the assembly suffered majorly with the speaker being in the Chamber alone for the whole week.
After the demonstration week, the following week was still affected with the Legislatures saying they would not attend the sittings until their pending Committee allowances will be paid.
After meeting with the speaker, the members agreed to attend the sittings after the speaker and the clerk told them that they would be paid at the end of August latest after the uploading of the budget.
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“It is not our fault that we are not able to facilitate members in goodtime. We are faced with challenges of what is happening across the country because there is no money to honor their services in good time. The bills will be paid as we have got assurance from the COB that after the publishing of the budget and uploading, then we will be able to access the money. That will be in a record of three-four weeks,” Ngondi stated.
On Tuesday 8, August 2023, only 26 out of the 41 members required to raise quorum attended the plenary forcing the Speaker to adjourn to Wednesday, 9, 2023 with the Majority leader and his Deputy and Deputy Speakers being among the leaders present.
The Assembly has a total of 123 members.
“…the speaker shall adjourn the County Assembly forthwith to the next sitting,” states the Standing order.
The Assembly shall be adjourning for along recess this week (August 11, 2023)until September 11, 2023.