NAIROBI, August 5 – The Local Government Minister on Tuesday published a gazette notice for the nomination and revocation of councillors countrywide.
In the list, 57 nominated councillors were revoked, while 65 others were nominated.
The notice also listed government representatives in the local authorities.
Local Authorities Minister Musalia Mudavadi however said Mayors, Chairmen of Councils and Council Committee Chairman were not effected in the changes to avoid destabilising the local authorities.
“In the process of verification, we have discovered that some of the Councillors, whose nominations were revoked, are already mayors and Chairman of councils, it is therefore not prudent to destabilise the councils by revoking the nomination of the affected councillors,” he said.
The Deputy Prime Minister described the process as ‘tedious and time consuming’ but confirmed that it was done carefully.
The revocation came after Mudavadi’s predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta was accused of overstepping his mandate and nominating a number of councillors irregularly.
Mudavadi said the nominations and revocations were regularised with the inclusion of the appointing authorities in political parties, as well as the constitution.
“For example, the nomination of the Mayor of Mombasa has been validated through the Orange Democratic Movement, which was the appointing authority,” he said.
To ensure such irregularities do not happen in future, Mudavadi said the ministry was planning to amend the Local Government Act.
However, he warned that the new list of nominated and revoked councillors should be a lesson for those in charge to follow the law and avoid illegal and crafty nomination processes.
“So that when we do nominate, we do not reach a situation where we are put in an embarrassing situation of having either to revoke or change names in the middle of the road,” he advised.
Mudavadi noted that the list could have been tampered with due to political pressure.
He said the omission of Esther Passaris from the nomination list was wrong, but said she could not be reinstated because she had upgraded from the level of the council to the level of a Parliamentary candidate.
NEW DISTRICTS
The Minister said districts should be created according to viability to avoid an upsurge of local councils that are usually not planned for.
He noted that a majority of the 175 local authorities in the country were facing financial difficulties, hence weakening their efficiency in service delivery.
“The 81 districts created last year means creation of 81 new local authorities. Will they be viable and will they sustain themselves since every local authority is supposed to sustain itself?” he posed.
He said the ministry however had no plans of degazetting any local authority.
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