Migori County speaker Boaz Okoth has been finally impeached barely months to end the Assembly’s business and go to a General Election.
This comes just a week after the speaker allegedly broke into the County’s finance office in the middle of the night and made away with some crucial documents.
On Tuesday, February 8, Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) who were angered by the reported act tabled a motion immediately after resuming their sixth session and promptly kicked out the speaker.
The motion that was tabled by Muhuru Bay MCA Hevron Maira saw a total of 42 MCAs vote to kick Okoth out. Two legislators refrained from voting, two voted No whereas 11 other county legislators skipped the session.
Bukira Central MCA Mathews Chacha who has been the deputy speaker will now act as the speaker.
Apart from theft, the legislators further accused the Migori County speaker of taking the assembly captive and ganging against members who are best in performing their oversight role.
The MCAs also claimed that the speaker has been delaying payment of their salaries, a move they said has reduced them to beggars as they have now turned to borrow money to make ends meet.
They also accused him of high-handedness and trying to change assembly committees without following established procedures.
“We need to bring sanity to this assembly. That is why we are doing a cleanup. Members are suffering, we even owe hotels. The speaker has demeaned MCAs for far too long,” South Sakwa MCA Ken Ngoro told the Standard.
On February 3, the speaker was arraigned in court alongside seven co-accused and denied charges of breaking into assembly finance offices and stealing equipment and files.
The speaker denied the charges and was released on KSh 200,000 bond.
