NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 23 – A power struggle intensified at City Hall Thursday after Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Beatrice Elachi vowed to reject the reinstatement of Jacob Ngwele as the Clerk.
“We will not allow him back because as far as I am concerned, we have already completed the recruitment process for his replacement,” Elachi said, shortly after Ngwele took over office, having been reinstated on advice of the Central Bank of Kenya and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
Ngwele had been out of office since November 2019, after Elachi wrote to EACC, that he was irregularly appointed. She wanted him investigated.
EACC said it is now satisfied that Ngwele was properly appointed, after seven months of investigations.
“The Commission established that the Nairobi County Assembly and Service Board resolved to absorb and confirmed the appointment of Ngwele as shown by minutes of a meeting of June 10, 2014,” EACC said in a letter.
But Elachi insists that any attempt to have Ngwele back in office is illegal.
The Commission said it had also found that the board confirmed Ngwele following a letter by the Transition Authority, dated January 20, 2014.
The Central Bank of Kenya also affirmed the legality of Ngwele’s position after declining the request by Speaker Elachi to have him removed as a signatory of the assembly’s accounts.
Central Bank of Kenya through its counsel Kennedy Abuga made it clear that Ngwele is the duly mandated holder of the assembly’s accounts at the CBK even after Elachi wrote numerous letters seeking deactivation of the mandates.
Abuga said the numerous letters for mandate holders in respect to the City Assembly accounts were causing confusion and could lead to weakened controls and a potential loss of public funds.
“CBK will not accept any communication or messages relating to the accounts held, if not from the authorized mandate holders,” he said.
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