The delay by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to gazette the ward reps means that no governor can officially summon the first county assembly sitting.
The law does not allow any county assembly to sit before they are fully or properly constituted, former County Assemblies Forum Chairman Ndegwa Wahome told the Nation.
Mr Wahome, a former assembly Speaker in Nyandarua County, said a House is fully constituted when both elected and nominated members have been gazetted by the IEBC. This paves the way for the governor to gazette the date and place of the first sitting.
“The governor has 30 days from the date of the full constitution of the assembly to gazette its first sitting. The two are part of critical amendments in the County Governments Act,” Mr Wahome said.
This, he explained, is unlike the National Assembly and the Senate, which can hold sittings without nominated members. Both Houses of Parliament will hold their first sittings this week.
Asked when the commission is likely to gazette nominated MCAs, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati did not reply to our calls and text messages.
According to Section 7(1) of the County Governments (Amendments) Act, 2020, full membership of the county assembly comprises elected members, special seat members, six members drawn from marginalised groups, that is people living with disabilities and the youth, and the Speaker.
“A county assembly shall not be fully and duly constituted for the first sitting after a General Election unless all the members provided for under paragraphs (b) and (c) of Article 177(1) of the Constitution have been duly nominated and their names published in the Gazette,” that section of the Act says.
Article 177 of the Constitution states that a county assembly consists of members elected by the registered voters of the wards, each ward constituting a single member constituency; special seat members necessary to ensure that no more than two-thirds of the membership of the assembly are of the same gender; members of marginalised groups, including persons with disabilities and the youth, prescribed by an Act of Parliament; and the Speaker, who is an ex officio member.
Whenever a new county assembly is elected, the law further says, the governor, by notice in the Kenya Gazette, shall set the venue and date of the first sitting, which shall not be more than 30 days from the date on which the county assembly shall be fully constituted as per section 7A.
After the 2017 elections, 559 female members were nominated as gender top-up since only 97 women were elected in the 1,450 wards. Another 90 women have been nominated to represent marginalised groups.
The gender top-up is less than the 680 women nominated in 2013 when 84 women were elected. In the recent polls, 100 women are among 1,445 MCAs elected for the 47 counties countrywide.
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