Jubilee Party is positioning itself in fronting former Senate Majority Whip, Beatrice Elachi, to take over Nairobi County Speaker position.
This emerged on Saturday when President Uhuru Kenyatta met all elected Jubilee leaders from Nairobi County.
He urged them to back Elachi who contested for Dagoretti North Parliamentary seat on a Jubilee ticket but lost.
In the Nairobi County Assembly, Jubilee has a majority of elected MCAs at 45 while NASA has 40. The Assembly has a total of 85 MCAs.
Jubilee will further nominate 24 MCAs while NASA nominates 18.
A Speaker of a County Assembly is the head of a county government’s legislative body.
Ten candidates have declared interest in running for Nairobi County Speaker, nine of them from Jubilee Party.
Former Mukurwe-ini and Makadara MPs Kabando wa Kabando and Ben Mutura have expressed interest in clinching the seat.
Others are outgoing Karura MCA Kamau Thuo, Embakasi South MP loser Mutunga Mutungi, businessman Abbas Khalif, nominated MCA Mohammed Abdi and Nairobi County Public Service Board vice chair Vesca Kangongo.
Alex Ole Magelo who has served as the Assembly’s Speaker since 2013 is also seeking to defend his seat while outgoing deputy speaker Ken Ngondi is the only NASA-affiliated politician who is running for the seat.
Jubilee Party Chairman in Nairobi County Sanctus Ndegwa said the party has settled for Elachi for purposes of gender balance.
He also said that Kabando’s fate is sealed because he bowed out of Mukurwe-ini race after party primaries.
“We are yet to settle on a candidate but Elachi is the front-runner. We want to give the seat to a woman and that of majority leader to a man for gender balance,” he said. as quoted by the Star.
Uhuru also drummed support for outgoing minority leader Abdi Guyo’s election as majority leader and Ngara MCA Mwaura Chege as majority chief whip.
By Pharis Kinyua. He’s an online journalist and an author for Jamhuri News