Nominated Member of the County Assembly (MCA) Habiba Ibrahim Hussein has lost her seat over the failure to attend plenary sittings for two years.
Her seat was declared vacant on Tuesday, March 10, by the Speaker Beatrice Elachi having adopted the report of the select committee on powers and privileges into allegations of absenteeism from plenary sittings.
Two other MCAs have also been suspended from the assembly for three months. These are Kileleshwa MCA Elias Otieno and Airbase ward representative Fuad Hussein Mohamed.
Investigations into absenteeism among MCAs were highlighted by Maurice Gare on February 18, where he inquired about the long absenteeism of Kileleshwa MCA Elias Otieno.
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Gare substantiated that Otieno had been absent for too long hence claimed that it was a violation of Standing Order 242 which highlights on failure to attended sittings.
Elachi directed the issue to the Powers and Privileges Committee for investigation into the cases where MCAs had missed eight sittings.
Airbase MCA, Fuad, in his response while appearing before the committee on February 26 stated that he had attended sittings on two occasions but did not clock in using the biometric device clock.
Additionally, Mohamed pleaded guilty of missing the plenary sittings although he argued that he had a family issue that had taken him close to nine months to resolve.
He thus apologized to the committee for failing to inform the speaker of his absenteeism.
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Otieno, on the other hand, appeared before the committee on February 27 and claimed that the whole issue was based on malice, adding that his fingers had failed to be captured on the biometric register on several occasions.
Otieno alluded that he had attended the sittings, linking his woes to Gare, whom he claimed had personal differences with him.
It was established that Otieno had missed a total of 12 sittings between November 14, 2019, and February 18, 2020.
Habiba had her seat declared vacant with the committee citing that her absence for two years was gross misconduct against all provisions of representation of the electorate under the Constitution, Leadership and Integrity Act, Elections Act 2011 and also the assembly’s standing orders.
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