This archive report was first published on 24 December 2019.
MCAs' Dubai Trip to Save Sonko Exposed ¶
On Monday, a plot to scuttle Governor Mike Sonko's ouster was exposed as the Nairobi County Assembly sent MCAs on a superfluous tour of the United Arab Emirates at taxpayers' expense.
The 18 Ward Reps were scheduled to fly out to Dubai for 11 days, from December 19 to 29, 2019, but the trip was stopped by County Speaker Beatrice Elachi as it would have raised audit and moral queries.
According to sources, the Dubai tour had been planned to take place around the same time when ODM members were calling for a special sitting of the assembly, during which a motion to impeach Sonko would have been tabled.
On December 11, 2019, Sonko paid a Sh15 million cash bail to secure his freedom as the case against him progresses.
He is facing corruption and abuse-of-office charges and has been barred from accessing his office or in any way running the affairs of the county.
Minority Whip Peter Imwatok said his office was not notified of the travel plans and that, as the whip of his party, he would have been the one to nominate members for the trip, which also ought to be justified.
He said that the law requires a minimum of four and a maximum of seven MCAs to travel outside the country at any given time, and that the Dubai trip would not have been allowed by the Ministry of Devolution and National Treasury.
"We must stop this tendency of people wanting to transport MCAs when they are supposed to transact important issues of the assembly. Whether they facilitate MCAs out of the country or not, the threshold of numbers to transact the business of the House remains. Sonko should stop misusing public funds," he said.
