Kwale business community threaten to petition president William Ruto to dissolve Kwale county government due to “delayed executive members approval”

Kwale business community have threatened to petition President William Ruto to dissolve the Kwale county government for a fresh election claiming the assembly has refused to approve county executive nominee names presented to them a month ago.

Led by Richard Onsongo, the group said that delay to approve CECM has jeopardized service delivery in the area.

• “We cannot allow the MCAs to hold the county government of Kwale at ransom. We will march to the assembly next week and eject the MCAs who have refused to work for the interest of Kwale people,” he said.

County assembly public appointment committee on 3 November began the vetting exercise for 10 county executive committee members and retreated to prepare a report on the same that is expected to be tabled before the assembly for debate.

Speaking at Shikamana School during a graduation ceremony, Onsongo blamed Speaker Seth Kamanza for failing to take charge and ensure executive member’s nominee’s names are approved.

The business community in the region issued a one week ultimatum to the assembly to table and debate vetting report before approving or else Kwale residents will bring services at the assembly premises to a standstill.

“There are people who have started collecting signatures to oust Governor Fatuma Achani because they still don’t believe she is the governor. Unfortunately they have presented a list of dead people. They are the same people misusing the county assembly members to sabotage the county executive wing. We will not allow that,” said Richard.

He said that the county executive is ready for a fresh election if the county government is dissolved to seek fresh mandate in order to have leaders who are ready to serve citizens.

But speaking at the same venue Governor Fatuma Achani downplayed Onsongo sentiments saying that there is no reason to worry since the legislative wing is playing its part according to the law.

“I want to ask Richard not to be worried about the assembly speaker and the house, they have no problem at all because I am sure they have other things that they are doing and once they are done they will work on our CECM list for approval,” said Achani.

Achani said that she will work with whoever will be approved by the legislative house for the benefit of Kwale people.

The governor said that she will continue serving Kwale people while waiting for the approval of the executive members by the county assembly.

In a quick rejoinder Kwale county assembly speaker Seth Kamanza said that the assembly public appointment committee is still working on the list adding that it is within the legal programs.

“Once the governor has nominated members for an executive position and presented it before the assembly legally, the assembly has 21 working days to work on it. So far from the day we received the list we are still on day 8,” Speaker Kamanza told Coast Times Digital.

• “If we follow the required legal procedures the executive nominated list report should be out by April 2023 but because we have a good relationship to serve our people we are working on it,” he added.

Kamanza said that working on the individual report which included going to various institutions to do background checks including EACC and university is such a tiresome job that cannot be hurriedly done.

“We are doing thorough work. On Monday some of the CECMs brought their papers and we had to wait for them before doing our reports,” he said.

• “Many people think that we are sabotaging the governor but the true picture is there are some areas we are even trying to help her as we play our part. Very few people would understand the procedures we are taking to make this work done,” he said.

According to section 9 (1) of the public appointment (County assemblies approval) Act ,2017 provides that; “(1) unless otherwise provided in any law, a committee shall consider a nomination and table its report in the county assembly for debate and decision within twenty one sitting days from the date on which the committee first sits to consider the nomination.”

In this case since the period for consideration is pegged on the county assembly sitting days, the day that the House is on Recess (8^th December 2022 to 7^th February 2023 will not count.