City MCAs reject Sakaja’s pick for County Secretary

Nairobi County Assembly has rejected Jairus Musumba who was nominated by Governor Johnson Sakaja for the County Secretary position.

Musumba has been acting in the position for two years.

Majority Leader Peter Imwatok asked Sakaja to nominate another person for the job within seven days.

“This House resolves to reject nominee for the County Secretary job. The committee resolves that Governor Sakaja appoints another officer other than the nominee within seven days before the position is substantively filled up,” said Imwatok.

Minority Leader Anthony Kiragu said Musumba failed to respond to most questions that were posed to him raising questions about his competence.

“We have tested the candidate, we have looked at the merits and demerits of the candidate and we have concluded the nominee is not fit for the job. We cannot have Jairus Musumba as a county secretary. He is incompetent,” said Kiragu.

Kilimani MCA Moses Ogeto said it was illegal to have Musumba act for two years.

“We will even ask EACC to probe him. We need somebody who is serious and sober for this job,” he said.

Musumba was also put to task to explain why land belonging to Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company in Eastleigh was grabbed and no action was taken.

Rough time

In his response, Musumba said he was not aware of  any grabbing having taken place.

“For every question we asked it was disappointing to get answers such as “I do not know...” Nairobi county should not have such an individual for such a job. He has been misadvising the Executive,” said Nominated MCA Emily Ominde.

The acting County Secretary also had a rough time trying to respond to claims that he had ignored summonses by County Assembly for more than eight times without any reason.

“This is a House that should be respected. Anytime we asks questions we should be given answers. Musumba should be far away from this job,” said Ogeto.

During the vetting, Musumba also contradicted the position of the County Public Service board about the future of 700 enforcement officers who worked with defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS).

Musumba told the MCAs that the County had set aside money to pay enforcement officers until June.

He said that the county human resource department had put in place all measures to have the officers paid.

“I have talked with the human resource department and I have been assured that they will be paid until June. That’s the position we have for now,” said Musumba.

However, Minority Leader Kiragu dismissed Musumba’s statement saying the County Assembly had not allocated any money to pay the enforcement officers.

“As we speak these enforcement officers have not been paid for December last year. The reality is that they may end up not being paid. At the Assembly we make the budget and I can confirm that we did not allocate any money in the budget to pay them,” said Kiragu.

Since devolution started in 2013, Nairobi has had eight County Secretaries with Lilian Ndegwa serving as the first but was kicked out in 2015 following charges of defrauding the county Sh17.5 million.

In January 2016, the then Governor Evans Kidero appointed Robert Ayisi who was later replaced by Leboo Ole Morintat. Ayisi (now deceased) had left the position due to health problems.

Morintat served until Governor Mike Sonko replaced him Peter Kariuki.

Kariuki left in September 2018 after he was arrested for disobeying court orders and was succeeded by Pauline Kahiga.  She too was arrested by anti-graft agency detectives for allegedly hiding documents in graft investigations at City Hall.