The row between Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Beatrice Elachi and Clerk Jacob Ngwele has taken a fresh twist with position of the clerk at the assembly now being declared vacant.
This is after the Nairobi County Assembly Service Board, chaired by Elachi, advertised for a vacancy in the office of the clerk calling for interested parties to apply.
VACANT POSITION
In a notice published in the local dailies, the board said it was acting in compliance with a June 4, 2020 order by the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
Further, the advert stated that according to the County Assembly Services Act and the County Governments Act, there was no valid holder of the office of the clerk at the assembly.
“The Nairobi County Assembly has never recruited a substantive Clerk to the Nairobi County Assembly since inception in 2013,” the notice reads in part.
“Consequently, the Nairobi City County Assembly Service Board invites applications from suitably qualified Kenyan citizens to fill the following position on permanent and pensionable terms,” added the notice.
A clerk is the chief accounting officer of the assembly and is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the assembly, among other functions.
Ms Elachi and Mr Ngwele do not see eye-to-eye with the two involved in protracted war that began after a fallout in early 2018.
However, the feud resurfaced again following the return of Elachi to office in October last year after more than a year out after she was impeached in September, 2018.
COMPULSORY LEAVE
Immediately after the return, the Speaker sent Mr Ngwele on a one-month compulsory leave on October 24, 2019 to give room for investigations over alleged sabotage of the Assembly despite a court order stopping such move.
Ms Monicah Muthami would be appointed as acting clerk a week later effectively replacing Mr Ngwele in the board.
An ad hoc committee of the assembly later in its report revoked the appointment of Mr Ngwele as the assembly’s clerk on grounds of gross violation of Section 18(2) of the County Assembly Services Act.
He was to be later locked out of his office by MCAs allied to Elachi but he got a reprieve after his ouster as struck out by the court in late November.
However, Ngwele has not been able to set foot in his office since battling for his return to the Assembly through a litany of court cases.
In April this year, the two were embroiled in yet another battle after Ngwele was restored as a signatory to the assembly’s accounts following his removal from the position in December last year by Elachi.
The wrangle saw the salaries of MCAs and assembly staff delayed for two months. Currently, the head of assembly Public Relations, Pauline Akuku is the acting clerk.
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