By Andrew Mbuva
Machakos County Assembly deputy Minority Leader Francis Kavyu has rubbished assertions by several Wiper MCAs that the County Assembly Service Board is irregularly constituted.
Addressing journalists a day after Speaker Ann Kiusya lifted the suspension of Assembly sittings, Kavyu said Governor Wavinya Ndeti’s threat to withhold the Assembly’s budgetary allocation on those grounds demonstrates “ignorance and little understanding of the law.”
“The accounting officer for the Assembly is the Clerk, not the Board,” he emphasized.
Kavyu explained that the Board’s mandate is limited to preparing and submitting budget estimates for the Assembly’s approval. Once the House passes the Budget, spending is guided exclusively by the Budget and Appropriation Act, leaving the Board with no further financial influence.
Citing the County Governments Acts of 2012 and 2017, he noted that the Board meets the legal quorum of three members: the Speaker, the Majority Leader, and the Minority Leader. “Even if there are objections to the current fourth and fifth members, the presence of these three is sufficient for lawful business,” he said.
He added that, under Schedule 5 of the Act, the terms of the fourth and fifth members lapse only upon the appointment of new office-holders—an appointment the Assembly recently rejected. Because that report was invalidated, he said, it can only be re-introduced after six months.
Kavyu accused a faction within Wiper of using the dispute to try and force out Speaker Kiusya. “Our Speaker is going nowhere,” he declared. “Your schemes have failed—see you on Monday as we get back to serving the people of Machakos.”
