Ex-Makadara MP Benson Mutura wins Nairobi Speaker election

Former Makadara member of Parliament Benson Mutura has won the Nairobi Speaker election after receiving 99 out of 122 votes in the first round.

The vote on Friday took place via Zoom due to measures taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

In his announcement of the winner, acting Speaker John Kamangu said, “I hereby declare Mr Benson Mutura the new Nairobi County Assembly Speaker, having attained more than the required two-thirds majority votes.”

Six candidates from the seven earlier shortlisted battled it out for the chance to replace Beatrice Elachi who resigned on Tuesday.

This was after former speaker Alex ole Magelo withdrew from the race to support Mr Mutura, a Jubilee Party candidate.

Others candidates were former Nairobi Deputy Speaker Ken Ngondi, former Nairobi Economic Planning chief officer Dr Washington Makodingo, Abdi Ali Abdi who came second to Ms Elachi in the 2017 Speaker election, Mike Obonyo Guoro and Allan Chacha Mang’era.