A report by the Auditor General for the period 2020/2021 reveals a case in which Musumba approved irregular payments of allowances to members of the County Assembly totalling Ksh. 4,361,828. The Auditor General in her report noted that the County Assembly has an independent budget to support its operations
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There is more than meets the eyes in the rejection of Mr Jairus Musumba as the substantive County Secretary by Nairobi City County Assembly MCAs. Mr Musumba was nominated by Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja after interviews with the Public Service Board where 14 applicants had been shortlisted.
The Weekly Vision has learnt that MCAs rejected Mr Musumba’s nomination not because of the reasons as tabled in the County Assembly which was overwhelmingly supported but because of personal reasons. It should be noted that when former Governor Mike Sonko was impeached and the then assembly Speaker Benson Mutura stepped in as acting governor, Justus Gathenge was kicked out and replaced by Musumba as acting secretary. It should also be noted that Musumba was a handshake appointee following a deal brokered between Jubilee and ODM MCAs. The person who pushed for Musumba was Makongeni Ward MCA Peter Imwatok who is now the Majority leader.
When Governor Sakajja took over the leadership of the county, the MCAs who were in the previous assembly vowed to kick Mr Musumba out by lobbying the new members. It has also been discovered that ODM had demanded the position of CS when Sakaja agreed to appoint some ODM members to his cabinet and as chief officers
Jubilee and ODM MCAs had agreed to share slots at City Hall with the position of CS given to ODM. It was for this reason that Imwatok lobbied and pushed to have Musumba get a powerful and lucrative position. It later turned out that Musumba refused to give in to demands which were being pushed by MCAs from both the political divide. The MCAs wanted the CS to approve payments which would later come back to haunt him. He became inaccessible to the MCAs and failed to approve their payments as demanded and this led to serious fallouts between Musumba and the MCAs.
Immediately after taking over as acting CS, he was lured and misled into approving payments to members of the County Assembly something that has come back to haunt him. A report by the Auditor General for the period 2020/2021 reveals a case in which Musumba approved irregular payments of allowances to members of the County Assembly totalling Ksh. 4,361,828. The Auditor General in her report noted that the County Assembly has an independent budget to support its operations.
When Governor Sakajja took over the leadership of the county, the MCAs who were in the previous assembly vowed to kick Mr Musumba out by lobbying the new members. It has also been discovered that ODM had demanded the position of CS when Sakaja agreed to appoint some ODM members to his cabinet and as chief officers.
Sakaja is said to have stood his ground that the position of CS will be his appointee hence Musumba. ODM together with Kenya Kwanza MCA lobbied to have Musumba’s appointment rejected which they successfully did. To show how malicious the MCA’s are, in their report, they claimed that Musumba lacks academic qualifications to serve as the county secretary. It is imperative to note that Dr Musumba is a PhD holder and one wonders why the MCAs claimed he is not qualified to take up the CS job.
Sources also claim that the MCAs in the previous assembly had unsuccessfully tried to lure Musumba to give them tenders through proxy companies and also to influence him to approve payment of pending bills to companies they had an interest in. When he failed to yield to their pressure and threats, they vowed to kick him out and true to their threats; they dismissed him through the appointments committee report claiming he was not qualified.
