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New list of nominated councillors due next week

NAIROBI, July 18 – A new list of nominated councillors would be gazetted in a week’s time, Local Government Minister Musalia Mudavadi has said.

Mudavadi who was to give the list by the end of this week said on Friday that he needs more time to finalise the eagerly awaited document.

The Minister who plans to de-gazette the nomination of more than 100 councillors, told journalists that he was still consulting the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) over the matter.

“I have slightly over run my targeted deadline but we want to be as thorough to minimise the possibility of repeating the same mistakes.” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

His predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta allegedly altered the names of nominated councillors and increased their numbers just before President Mwai Kibaki unveiled the Grand Coalition Government.

The Local Government Act allows for the nomination of a third of the number of elected councillors.
Uhuru has in the past defended the move saying he followed the law to the letter.

Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba on Wednesday, called on the ministry to release the new list of nominated councillors to root out those who were illegally appointed.

He said the new list would help unearth anomalies and ensure legal action is taken against those responsible.
Some aggrieved parties have already sued Uhuru after their names were omitted from the final list that was gazetted.

The Nairobi City Council tops the list of nominees with eight disputed names followed by Mombasa with four.

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Mudavadi’s action is likely to have serious implications in some civic authorities. In Mombasa, Mayor Ahmed Mondhar is one of the councillors whose nomination is being disputed.

Some high profile individuals who were struck off the list by Uhuru include Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Esther Passaris.

ODM had submitted Passaris’ name to the ECK, but Uhuru omitted it.

Passaris who unsuccessfully contested the Embakasi Parliamentary seat has indicated that she does not wish to be nominated to the council.

She instead wants to focus her energy in developing Embakasi constituency for a possible run in the 2012 general election.

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