Members of County Assemblies allied to the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party want the party's chairman John Mbadi to apologise for calling them illiterate and incompetent.
It was established the MCAs took offense from by Mbadi's recent remarks that a number of MCAs from the Luo Nyanza region could neither speak nor write in English, and hence were not adding any value to House activities.
“As nominated MCAs in Homa Bay County, we are offended by Mbadi’s statements. We are giving him 48 hours to apologise for insulting us, failure to which we will go to the streets to protest against him,” Nerea Amondi Oketch said.
During a fund-raising ceremony in Ndhiwa Constituency on Friday, April 5, Mbadi said that some of the ODM allied MCAs in Nyanza region got their current positions in the County Assemblies by virtue of being loyal to the party, and not because they were qualified for the job.
“We have observed a number of the MCAs cannot deliver services because they are not qualified," Mbadi said.
The Suba South MP who doubles as the Minority Leader in the National Assembly also said that some of the MCAs were friends and relatives of senior party officials. Mbadi showed cased that the party was planning to amend its Constitution to make sure that only qualified candidates are nominated to the Country Assemblies.
"We will review our Constitution to ensure only those who are qualified will be nominated next time," he said. The ODM party is still one of the affiliate parties in the troubled National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition and it remains the biggest opposition party in the country.