Rival Isiolo Speakers appear before Senate as leadership crisis deepens

Isiolo County Assembly Speaker Mohamed Roba before the Senate County Public Accounts Committee at the Bunge Towers, Nairobi. on June 7, 2024. [File ,Standard]

Political squabbles played out when two rival Isiolo County Assembly Speakers appeared before the Senate County Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday to answer audit queries.

Isiolo County Assembly currently has Speakers Abdullahi Banticha and Mohammed Roba, both claiming leadership and appearing before the Committee chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang.

The County has experienced persistent political wrangles and a leadership crisis, with Isiolo Governor Abdi Guyo and Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo not seeing eye to eye. Their differences have escalated to the Members of the County Assembly, who are now split into two factions.

Roba was initially elected Speaker and maintains that he is the official and legal Speaker of the Isiolo County Assembly. His faction operates from the official assembly chambers, while a section of MCAs allied to Governor Guyo are said to have replaced him earlier this year.

Banticha, a former Isiolo South MP, was ostensibly elected as a replacement Speaker by a faction of MCAs—reportedly 16 out of 18—and subsequently gazetted. His faction, aligned with the Governor, for a period held sittings in a parallel location to pass the county budget.

The issue of Isiolo County Assembly having two Speakers has also been before the High Court, with conflicting orders and claims of contempt surrounding the legitimacy of actions taken by both sides, despite the law allowing only one County Assembly Speaker at a time.

In a session chaired by Taita Taveta Senator Johnes Mwaruma, who is the Vice Chairperson of the Committee, County Assembly Clerk Guracha Salat struggled to convince Senators why the Assembly failed to respond to audit queries on time.

This followed a letter from the Office of the Auditor General in September requesting responses to the audit report for the 2023–2024 financial year, which the Clerk failed to provide within the required time.

“We would like the Clerk of the County Assembly of Isiolo to tell us whether he received a letter from the Office of the Auditor General requesting him to send responses on the audit queries. Did you or did you not get the letter?” asked Mwaruma.

Nyamira Senator Okongo Omogeni emphasized that they were seeking answers to a simple and direct question on whether the Clerk had received the letter, and if so, why he did not respond.

Omogeni further requested that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) be summoned to the Committee to explain why investigations into the vandalism that occurred at the Isiolo County Assembly more than four months ago have not been concluded.

In response, the Clerk told the Committee that the County Assembly was unable to respond to the audit queries because the premises had been vandalized, documents carted away, and some burned, rendering them unable to provide effective answers.

“We would like to inform the Senate that we could not respond to the audit queries raised by the Office of the Auditor General because the County Assembly was vandalized by goons who took some documents and burnt others. We wrote a letter to the Senate Committee and copied the OAG, and we had to relocate the Assembly to Oldonyiro Town,” said Salat.

Governor Guyo survived impeachment proceedings at the Senate after it was established that the Members of the County Assembly did not meet the threshold to remove him from office and failed to provide evidence that the impeachment had taken place.

Some 12 of the 16 MCAs who initially voted to impeach Guyo later shifted to support him, indicating a change in political alliances or a resolution of internal conflict.

While Governor Guyo has made efforts to resolve the leadership disputes that have beleaguered the County for the past six months—having mended relations with his Deputy and several MCAs—political wrangles remain far from over.

Senator Dullo has also raised concerns regarding the removal of Isiolo County staff from the payroll, with reports indicating that 485 staff employed under Governor Guyo’s administration remain on the payroll, while 250 are not.

Senator Dullo had previously requested human resource policies and payroll documents to be submitted to the Senate for review.