By The Weekly Vision
Immediate former Speaker of the Nairobi City County Assembly Benson Mutura is in the spotlight over alleged misappropriation of funds during his tenure in office, he also faces several corruption cases that have cut short his political career.
His allies are blaming former President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga who they say pushed for his election as a Speaker and then dumped him. The whole game plan of bringing Mr Mutura on board was to ensure Governor Sonko was kicked out of office through impeachment. It is claimed Mr Mutura had been promised state appointment should Raila Odinga win the presidential race or be retained as Speaker should Azimio have a majority in the county assembly.
However, tables were turned after Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga agreed on sharing slots in Nairobi County where Raila’s ODM was to produce House Speaker, Senator and Women Representative, Uhuru Governor and Kalonzo Musyoka Deputy Governor. When this arrangement leaked out, Mr Mutura led several MCAs from the Jubilee Party to join William Ruto’s UDA. It was at that stage that Uhuru and Raila are alleged to have used state machinery to allegedly fix Mutura with several corruption-related cases and arraignment in court. This was to deny him any opportunity to run for any elective post in the then-forthcoming elections. Upon joining Ruto, he was promised the position of Speaker but he was locked out of the race for failing to submit a certificate of good conduct and tax compliance certificate.
Sources at the Assembly claim that his approval of some payments has now come back to haunt him. Documents relating to Delegated Legislation Committee minutes revealed that the County Assembly held 9 meetings which did not have any agenda except confirmation of previous meeting minutes. Further, 3 of the above meetings did not meet the required quorum of one-third of the membership hence contravening Standing Order No.170 (2), therefore, the sitting allowances paid for these meetings were irregular. Further, he approved payments amounting to Kshs.4, 731,100 to staff being refunds of expenditure incurred on domestic travel and subsistence allowances instead of issuing Imprests. No plausible explanation has been provided on why the concerned staff were not issued with Imprests before undertaking the assignments and activities and instead made expenditure claims. Further, there were no approvals for travel before the assignments.
