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Legal fees amounting to Sh580 million were paid in the period under review; Sh480 million of which was over-budget/FILE

Kenya

Applications for county assembly speaker close

The deadline expired at 10am on Wednesday morning and Nairobi County Assembly interim Clerk Jacob Ngwele said they will not receive any more applications/FILE

The deadline expired at 10am on Wednesday morning and Nairobi County Assembly interim Clerk Jacob Ngwele said they will not receive any more applications/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 20 – The submission of nomination papers for the post of Nairobi County Assembly Speaker has been closed with only 25 out of the 79 applicants having submitted their documents.

The deadline expired at 10am on Wednesday morning and Nairobi County Assembly interim Clerk Jacob Ngwele said they will not receive any more applications.

He pointed out that the deadline was to have expired 48 hours before the convening of the first County Assembly due to have its first sitting on Friday.

“The Transitional Authority had given the deadline, 48 hours before the date that had been given by the IEBC and according to them it was 9am but according to the Gazette Notice, the deadline was supposed to be at 10am this Wednesday which is today,” he said.

He further stated that the next step will now be to verify the qualifications of the candidates.

“We cannot receive anymore nomination papers because the law says that they must be submitted 48 hours before the date of the election. After the submission of the nomination papers, I am going to now verify whether they meet the requirements of the law,” he explained.

“I will examine whether they have been nominated by two members; whether they have a letter from IEBC and if they have attached their CVs and certificates,” he added.

He indicated that during the verification process, he will be scrutinising the documents to ensure that each applicant meets the minimum qualifications.

“After that I am going to prepare a summary of their qualifications for those who have met the minimum qualifications and this is going to be circulated to the members of the assembly before the elections and then I am going to prepare the ballot papers,” he said.

He also stated that he will be looking for indications of forgery so that only genuine applications move forward.

“We will also still have to verify that those people who have given the nomination papers have been properly nominated whether the person he has stated there is the correct person or their signatures have been forged,” he said.

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“The qualifications according to the Constitution are the same as a member of the county assembly. There are no minimum educational qualifications for a Speaker of the county assembly. You just have to have the same qualifications as a member of the county assembly.”

A person is eligible for election as a member of a county assembly if the person is registered as a voter and satisfies any educational, moral and ethical requirements prescribed by the Constitution.

He should also have been nominated by a political party or an independent candidate supported by at least five hundred registered voters in the Ward concerned.

Lobbying for the Nairobi county assembly speaker’s seat has intensified as the battle narrowed down to a contest between TNA and ODM.

ODM is banking on its majority of the 44 elected county representatives against TNA’s 41.

ODM numbers will be bolstered further by its affiliates in CORD Alliance, Wiper and FPK, which have two and one county representatives respectively which gives it a total of 47 out of 85.

The law dictates that the winner garners two thirds of the votes and if the required number is not attained in the first and second round, the candidate with the majority votes will then become the Speaker.

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