The delay by Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja to gazette a sitting to swear in Members of County Assembly (MCAs) has exposed a myriad of challenges the county boss may likely face during his tenure.

Governor is facing the headache of running a county government with an Assembly controlled by the Opposition.

Sakaja, who has minority MCAs, is said to have delayed the sitting as he tried to lobby for his Kenya Kwanza candidate to clinch the Speaker’s position.

Set for this Thursday, the contest for the Speaker has narrowed down to a do-or-die battle between the Raila Odinga-led Azimio-One Kenya and President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza Alliance.

The race pits Azimio’s Ken Ng’ondi against Kenya Kwanza’s Benson Mutura, the former Speaker.

Sakaja’s allies, who spoke to People Daily said Kenya Kwanza was engaging independent MCAs to support them.

“As a coalition we do not have numbers but we are doing a lot to engage our independent colleagues to support us,” central business district MCA Chege Kwenya said.

Attempts to reach Sakaja over the issue did not bear fruits as he  neither answered our calls nor responded to our text messages.

However, his close associates who did not want to be quoted said the governor had an elaborate plan including organising a meeting with President William Ruto later in the week.

“The best thing with Sakaja is that he mingles well with leaders no matter their political divide. This week he will meet the President with a section of Azimio MCAs. The main agenda is how they will help Sakaja run Nairobi without chaos that has been witnessed in the previous regimes”, a source said.

As of yesterday, 45 governors had gazetted first sittings dates except for Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir and Sakaja. Intense lobbying and behind-the-scenes maneuvers have been going on as Sakaja races against time to get numbers that could tilt the Speaker’s contest in Kenya Kwanza’s favour.

Individual parties

For the better part of last week, county boss was holed up in meetings with MCAs as he tried to convince them to support Mutura to retain his seat.

Assembly has 85 elected Ward Reps and 39 nominated. However, election in Utawala Ward is yet to be held.

Azimio – comprising the Orange party, Jubilee and Wiper – leads with 67 MCAs while Kenya Kwanza (United Democratic Alliance) and Chama Cha Kazi has 53 MCAs. The remaining three are independents. In terms of individual parties, UDA and ODM both have 35 MCAs, Jubilee (six), Wiper (four) and CCK (one).

In the nomination list, ODM and UDA both bagged 17 slots while Jubilee had three and Wiper two.

An Azimio MCA, who sought anonymity, said Kenya Kwanza is on a mission to wreck Azimio’s strength in the Assembly by targeting MCAs allied to Jubilee and their ODM counterparts from the Luhya community.

Former Minority Deputy Whip and Kilimani MCA Moses Ogeto accused Sakaja of playing dirty politics with the swearing-in of MCAs, saying the continued delay is denying Nairobi residents representation, legislation and oversight.

“He should stop being selfish yet his swearing-in was not delayed. If he wants to bring back Sonkoism then he should be prepared to ride the rough terrain,” he added.

Baba Dogo MCA and former Deputy speaker Geoffrey Majiwa also read malice in the delayed gazettement of the first sitting.