TNA stopped from ejecting six committee members

By WAINAINA NDUNG’U

A supremacy battle between Nyeri County Assembly members of The National Alliance (TNA) and the Grand National Union (GNU) continues to disrupt legislative business.

On Wednesday evening, Speaker Mwangi Mugo stopped a bid by the TNA core team to replace six TNA members from all the 12 assembly committees.

Majority leader Mwangi Kibuu (Gatitu/Muruguru Ward) sought to replace the six members from Kieni Constituency with new nominees claiming they had shown marked indifference to their party agenda.

The six are Duncan Gituanja (Kabaru), Mwaniki Kanyiri (Mweiga), Bernard Kinga (Gatarakwa), Ringiru Marete (Narumoru), Amos Njogu (Gakawa) and John Njuguna (Mugunda).

But when Kibuu rose to table an amended list of the membership of the committees, the Speaker stopped him saying he could not proceed with an unsigned motion and in the view of additional conflicting communication from the TNA headquarters.

Tabling list

“I will stop you from tabling that list because this letter is going to have a direct bearing on your move,” said the Speaker despite Kibuu’s protests that the Assembly Business Committee had already approved the motion.

Contacted yesterday, TNA chairman Johnson Sakaja denied sending the letter to the Speaker.

“I have not sent any letter to the Nyeri County Assembly Speaker and any letter produced there is a forgery. Anybody tabling it should be charged with forgery,” said the TNA nominated MP.

One of the county assembly members Wachira Mwangi said the letter could not stop the Majority from carrying out its agenda in the Assembly, as there were no rules allowing outside interference.

“The Leader of Majority is the TNA point man in this Assembly. We cannot allow forces outside to purport to give us directions,” said Mwangi.

John Githaiga (Ruigi Ward) said the TNA group must discipline the six for “getting to bed with our rivals” no matter how long it took.

But Gituanja said the Majority could not cry foul when the Speaker took action based on the “TNA headquarters letter” when they are the ones who originally copied the communication to the party officials expressing a desire to discipline him and the five others.

County Assembly Cerk latter declined to issue the letter to Kibuu as directed by the Speaker’s office.

The TNA core team accused the six of being used by the County Executive lead by Governor Nderitu Gachagua to drive GNU’s agenda in the Assembly. TNA has 23 members in the Assembly while the GNU has six and Saba Saba Asili one member.