West Pokot County Assembly was on Thursday forced to adjourn after it lacked quorum to conduct the house business as the leadership row escalates. The irate members of county assembly from the majority side frustrated the efforts of the speaker to continue with the sessions after they decided to boycott the session with only 5 members of the county assembly from the Jubilee minority side and the majority leader who comes from KANU attending the session.
There was unease at the County assembly building as security officers were forced to lock them outside the chambers after they insisted all the members were not supposed to attend the sitting as they had an intention of disrupting the afternoon sitting and violating the Covid-19 regulations.
The standoff at the Assembly comes barely few days after County KANU leadership ousted the County assembly majority leader Thomas Ng’olesya set to be replaced by Weiwei ward representative Mr. David Kapelisiwa and Chief whip Maddy Polokou set to be replaced by Endough ward representative Evanson Lomadunyi for not supporting the County government agenda. The two sides are now engaged in leadership wrangles on who is the majority leader and Chief whip of the house.
County Assembly Speaker Catherine Mukenyang said that she adjourned the house session after members of the County assembly from the majority party KANU refused to enter the assembly, adding that they all wanted to enter the Chambers but it wasn’t possible because of Covid-19 regulations.
The speaker had planned that eleven members of the Assembly, six from KANU and PDR as the majority and 5 from Jubilee party as the minority were supposed to attend the session. Privy to the sessions there were speculations that the County assembly will turn into a mess because the two rival groups had planned to disrupt the sessions.
The armed contingent of police officers were deployed inside and outside the County assembly which saw the rival groups stay kilometers away from the chambers. The two parties went to Kapenguria police station accusing each other of arming themselves in the assembly.
The wrangles at the County assembly started in May this year after a section of the KANU majority side decided to make leadership changes without consultation from the KANU party headquarters.
However, top KANU leadership led by Secretary General Nick Salat wrote a letter to the County speaker stating that the party dismissed the changes that were supposed to be made by the West Pokot County assembly because consultations were not done.
The swoops have rekindled divisions among the assembly members as both camps vow not to relinquish the positions. The Speaker said that such a scenario will affect development in the County and that the County government suffered a setback because the County Debt Management Strategy Paper couldn’t be tabled.