Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has opened a new battle front with State House after the resignation of his deputy, Polycarp Igathe.
Igathe tendered his resignation on Friday evening, a few hours after he appeared in a TV interview where he strongly defended Nairobi County government.
He cited mistrust between him and the governor as the key reason for his resignation.
“Dear Nairobians, it is with a heavy heart that I resign my seat as elected Deputy Governor of Nairobi City County effective 1pm on 31st Jan 2018. I regret I have failed to earn the trust of the Governor to enable me to drive Admin & Management of the county,” he wrote via his twitter handle.
Sources say that Sonko is on a collision course with State House in a move geared towards “ending interference with City Hall.”
The Governor has since rejected former State House aide, Peter Kariuki who was proposed to take over as Nairobi County Secretary.
There were earlier reports that the Governors has been reduced to a “stooge” within the county’s leadership as State House operatives were literally running affairs in City Hall.
Igathe has over time been touted as a “State House” project. He was tasked with the day to day running of the county while Sonko, despite being the boss, was sidelined and expected to handle political affairs.
State House through its Spokesperson Manoah Esipisu refuted the claims State interference in running of the city affairs.
Sonko’s senior political adviser Onchari Oyieyo in reference to Igathe’s resignation said that the law did not allow Igathe to be the manager he wanted to be.
“The understanding was that Igathe would run the county government like a manager while Sonko handles the political component. What Igathe has refused to appreciate is that there exists a fair share of legal limitations which makes it impossible for Igathe to become the kind of manager he had wanted to become,” he told the Standard.
Among issues coming to the fore that Sonko and Igathe disagreed on is the retention of Jambo Pay-a company that has provided automated services for revenue collection.
In their campaign pact, the two had agreed to award the contract to another company within the first 100 days in office but Sonko reneged on the deal.
Oyieyo also said that Igathe lied to Sonko about Kariuki’s nomination to serve as the County Secretary.
“…we discovered that Kariuki was in fact an impostor. If the President wanted Kariuki to be county secretary, he would have told the governor the way he told him when recommending the nomination of Elachi as County Assembly speaker.”
Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Beatrice Elachi termed Igathe’s resignation as regrettable. She said the teething issues should have been addressed in a different way other than resigning.
“I believe this was the best team we had for Nairobi. Whatever bad blood one feels he has, they should just sit down and discuss because we promised Nairobian’s hope,” Elachi told the Standard.
She added: “These things happen politically and it depends on how people look at it. For me, I know the governor has been doing good work and I believe that he has a strong back room that will support him since there is no provision in law for the replacement of a deputy governor.”