By Karanja Njoroge and Martha Mibei
Chaos marred election of officials of various committees at Nakuru County Council.
The poll was characterised by shouting matches and near fistfights.
At one point, a councillor dashed out of the chambers with the ballot box paralysing the voting exercise.
A section of councillors led by former county council chairman John Murigo accused chairman Hezekiah Kariuki of conducting the election in haste to rubberstamp some candidates. Murigo and his group threatened to go court over election of councillor Ngugi Ngure as the chairman of town planning committee.
Tempers flared at the chamber after Ngure was declared elected unopposed.
“If you don’t want us to move to court, then we should repeat election of town planning chairman since we were not consulted. We want fair elections,” charged Murigo.
Nullify proceedings
Council clerk Joseph Malinda had a hard time taking councillors through sections of the law to cool tempers.
Earlier, more than 60 councillors had differed on the mode of composing the committees with one group proposing that fresh elections be held while another faction preferring current committee members.
The standoff was later resolved and the exercise kicked off with councillor Paul Chebor of ODM being elected unopposed to chair finance and general-purpose committee.
Others elected included Josephine Yegon (education), Jane Simita (vice-chairperson finance), Mercy Muriu (environment) and Christine Mutinda (HIV/Aids committee). The council has been embroiled in controversy after former finance chairman Joshua Cheruiyot moved to court to challenge his ouster from office. Meanwhile, the council’s clerk Joseph Malinda told Nakuru High Court yesterday that a lawyer misled him in March over a court order barring council elections.
Councillor Cheruiyot has accused Malinda of contempt of court after he allegedly ignored a court order stopping the polls. Malinda told the court in his defence lawyer Philip Rodin had told him there was no court order in relation to the meeting and hence he proceeded to convene elections.
The Salgaa councillor also wanted the court to nullify the proceedings and resolutions of the meeting in which councillor Sammy Cheboi was elected as his replacement.
However, Wendoh ordered the clerk to pay Cheruiyot accrued benefits for finance chair position from March this year. She also ordered the parties to appear on September 28 to reach an agreement on the compensation to Cheruiyot for his illegal impeachment.
