Members of the Nairobi County Assembly affiliated with the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party have defended Governor Johnson Sakaja against criticism for his repeated failure to appear before Senate committees to answer questions about various issues affecting the city.
Sakaja was fined Ksh.500,000 on Thursday for failing to appear before the Senate Energy Committee in connection with the February gas explosion at Mradi in Embakasi.
On Monday, the Governor also declined to appear before the County Public Accounts and Investments Committee (CPAIC), where he was expected to explain how Nairobi spent Ksh.76 billion from 2019 to 2023.
In a statement issued on Friday, Nairobi County Assembly Minority Whip Mugambi Macharia described the recent summons as “a political onslaught hoodwinked as oversight,” while also claiming that Sakaja, who he claims was not in office on both occasions, will honour them in due course.
“The Governor and his Executive have been faithfully attending to both the Senate and County Assemblies. In fact, in this financial year alone, the Governor has been to the Senate and more than 11 times and we are sure that he will go there to respond,” said Macharia.
“Many people are not happy at the progress being made. This is why all the noise came after the State of the Nation address where the Governor eloquently outlined progress over the last 19 months. Cartels are not happy and neither are those who used to supply air.”
Macharia further highlighted that a lot of the challenges facing Nairobi County were inherited from the devolved unit’s past administration, but expressed confidence that Sakaja is capable and willing to address them.
“A lot of the challenges are inherited, just like the audits in question, but the Governor is up to task to take them on. We are the representatives of Nairobi and we should focus on development,” he said.
