Mandera MCAs engaging in a fist fight. [Photo/Twitter]
Chaos erupted in Mandera Assembly on Thursday afternoon.This was after the Members of Mandera County Assembly allied to Economic Freedom Party (EFP) and President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee party engaged in a fist fight over a report on the vetting of cabinet nominees.The committee, led by Speaker Mohamed Khalif was expected to table a report rejecting all the ten nominees forwarded to the assembly by Mandera Governor Ali Roba for vetting and approval.However, Jubilee-allied members opposed the tabling of the document.At around 2.30pm, the Jubilee MCAs started blowing whistles thus forcing the speaker who is alied to EFP to adjourn the sitting to 8pm.The leader of minority Jimale Hassan accused EFP members of rejecting all the ten nominees forwarded to the assembly by Roba.“We are aware of the plan to adopt the report rejecting the CEC nominees by the EFP members using the tyranny of numbers and we shall not accept that,” noted Hassan as quoted by Daily Nation.In the new list, Governor Roba retained five members who served in his first term in office and dropped other five members. “Whether EFP use force or not we shall not accept [the rejection] of all the CECs as recommended by this report,” Hassan added.The committee’s recommendation was however defended by the leader of majority leader Abdi Hassan who noted that all the nominees were dropped on integrity issues.
“All these nominees have integrity issues and those retained by the governor have pending bills which cannot be explained how they came up and how they will be settled,” said Abdi.