By Andrew Mbuva
Machakos County Assembly Speaker Ann Kiusya has lifted the suspension of plenary and committee sittings that she imposed last month following a brawl during a House Business Committee meeting.
The County Assembly Service Board, meeting on Thursday, 22 May 2025, resolved to end the suspension with immediate effect.
In a letter titled “Lifting of the Suspension of the House and Committee Sittings,” the Speaker directed all committees to resume work on Monday, 26 May 2025.
The board also restored domestic and foreign official travel for Members of County Assembly (MCAs).
The decision comes just two days after Senate Clerk J. M. Nyegenye, in a letter dated 20 May 2025, summoned the Speaker, the Clerk, and the MCAs to appear before the Senate’s Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations on Tuesday, 27 May 2025, at 9.00 a.m.
The committee wants explanations on the legal and procedural grounds for the indefinite suspension, among other concerns.
Senator Agnes Kavindu Muthama had earlier sought a statement from the same committee questioning the Speaker’s authority to unilaterally halt Assembly business.
The Senate letter asks the Speaker to submit the Assembly’s approved calendar, her suspension notice, and evidence of any security threats cited as justification for the shutdown.
It has emerged that the Assembly staff have not been paid their March and April salaries and allowances since the Speaker’s 8 April 2025 suspension order, issued after a fracas in which Matungulu North MCA Raphael Nzau Lucky suffered a forehead injury.
With the ban now lifted, Machakos MCAs are expected back in the chambers next week as Senate scrutiny looms.
