Nairobi,Kenya, Jan 9- Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna tells DP Rigathi Gachagua to keep off affairs of Nairobi County
In a statement, Sifuna said that all tribes in Kenya as well as foreign nationalities dwell in harmony in Nairobi, therefore Gachagua should desist from making the City look like a one tribe affair.
Read Gachagua disagrees with Sakaja over Matatu’s access to the Nairobi CBD.
My statement on the recent conduct and utterances by DP Rigathi Gachagua. pic.twitter.com/ewGKXmPBzd
— Edwin Sifuna (@edwinsifuna) January 9, 2023
Senator Edwin Sifuna Full Statement
“Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is effortlessly turning himself into a national joke, delivering illegal decrees and generally behaving like a DO from a bygone era.
I firmly believe that Gachagua can be safely ignored, but I was elected by the people to draw the line on our constitutional and democratic order, when anyone, village clowns included, evidently becomes a threat to both.
Article 96 of our constitution enjoins me as the Senator of Nairobi to be the Protector of the
interests of Counties and their Governments. It is this mandate that forces me to now speak on the recent conduct of the Deputy President.
DP Gachagua has in the past few weeks had a tiff with Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja over management of city affairs, which most right-thinking Kenyans have rightfully ignored given the DPs unmatched ability to be a national nuisance. But he has now gone a step further and reportedly declared that he can direct any Governor on what to do. | now take it upon myself to educate the DP as follows.
The 2010 Constitution, in creating devolved units, made them distinct governments in their own right. They are therefore not subject to direction or control by the national government.
The Governors do not report to Gachagua. He has no power over county governments and must desist from interfering with their working.
Nairobians have stated unequivocally that they want the city to change. Changing the city cannot happen by making it a large kiosk paradise or a big matatu terminus under the guise of “Kazi ni Kazi”.
In achieving this change, the Nairobi County government cannot and shall not be beholden to tribal blackmail, loose tongues or latter-day pseudo-Mau Mau and their fake “bravery”. We must change how the city is run and one individual or tribe cannot hold all of Nairobi hostage.
All tribes in Kenya as well as foreign nationalities dwell in harmony in Nairobi. We reject Gachagua’s invitation to elevate some tribes to superior positions over others or his ill-informed agenda of attempting to divide Nairobi into tribal boroughs.
We were elected by people from all tribes and cannot be told that the interests of any one tribe override the interests of everyone else.
Gachagua grossly overestimates himself and his influence over Nairobi politics. The people who hold sway over city political affairs are known and they haven’t spoken.
Governor Sakaja knows this fact and should proceed to execute his agenda in the manner he sees fit. He will in the end only account to Nairobians and not Gachagua.
It’s obvious Gachagua is still hangover from his glory days as an all-powerful DO confiscating chicken from helpless farmers. It’s a good time to remind him that those days are long gone. Let him keep off the running of county governments and concentrate on delivering the many promises he and the President made to Kenyans, strictly in line with the powers he has under the Constitution”
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