Nyamira County Assembly leadership wrangles have taken a new twist after the Senate outlawed the faction headed by Speaker Enock Okero and nullified all businesses that were done outside gazetted Assembly chambers.

The Senate on Wednesday debated an interim progress report of the Standing Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations which passed among other recommendations the decision to outlaw the Bunge Mashinani sittings that had been sought as alternative Assembly sittings following persistent chaos that were occasioned by the contentious ouster of Mr Okero as the speaker.

The Committee which is chaired by Wajir Senator Mohammed Abass informed the House that the Bunge Mashinani initiative was illegally constituted and that all the business it conducted was illegal.

While debating on the Report, Homabay Senator Otieno Kajwang blamed the Judiciary in Nyamira for issuing conflicting court orders which he said were the core of the leadership crisis.

“We are having two county assemblies conducting all sorts of businesses in parallels. We should put this nonsense to an end by adopting stringent interim orders that will ensure sanity prevails,” Kajwang said.

For a seventh month now, the Assembly has been running under two parallel commands: one that is headed by embattled Speaker Enock Okero and Acting Clerk Silvanus Nyamora and that led by Ekerenyo MCA Thadeus Nyabaro and Clerk Duke Onyari.

The Okero faction has over the times been sitting at designated Sub-county headquarter offices under the Bunge Mashinai initiative while the Nyabaro-led faction has been sitting at the main Assembly chambers.

Currently, the Bunge Mshinani has 21 MCAs while that sitting at the main chambers has 12.

Nyamira Senator Okong’o Mogeni said the Assembly wrangles were a case of misguided understanding on the court battles that were going on at the Nyamira High Court.

“As we speak, there is no court order that is enabling the impeached speaker to continue holding any office,” Okong’o said.

Okong’o had sought a statement regarding the leadership crisis in the Nyamira Assembly.

In his quest, Okong’o had sought answers on the legality of Mr Okero as the speaker, the legality of Bunge Mashinani and the the legal locus of the businesses that have so far been conducted by the Bunge Mashinani faction.

Senate Speaker Amoson Kingi Wednesday ruled that the ongoing Bunge Mashinani were illegal and that all the businesses and transactions which were conducted during the period of its operations remained illegal.

Kingi also ruled that all allowances and benefits that had been paid to Speaker Enock Okero and the Members of the faction he leads be recovered since all the businesses they conducted were unconstitutional.

“It is ordered that the EACC investigates the appropriations and expenditure of public resources by the impeached speaker and the group of members of the County Assembly that held sittings outside the gazetted County Assembly and that the Clerk of the County Assembly surcharges and recovers all allowances and funds paid to the impeached speaker and the group of MCAs,” Kingi ruled.

The decision by the Senate to rubbish the Court Orders that have been cushioning Okero has attracted mixed reactions from different people.

While Mr Nyabaro and members of his faction welcomed the outcome from the Senate, the others allied to Bunge Mashinani maintained their stance saying they will remain unbowed by the Senate ruling.

Speaker Enock Okero maintained that Bunge Mashinani remained a legal business and that he will continue leading the majority of MCAs in doing business with the Assembly.

“The Senate has turned out to be a party in the ongoing wrangles instead of being an arbiter. Bunge Mashinani is protected legally and we will continue with the sittings,” Okero said.

Julius Anyoka, a Nairobi-based advocate Julius Anyoka said the Senate was overstepping its constitutional mandate and it ought not to have given orders to the County Assembly of Nyamira owing to the independence of each of the two entities.

“County Assemblies are independent state organs just like the Senate and they enjoy similar status as Senate. That is why the Senate should not act as if it’s oversight the lower House. As such, declaring Bunge Mashinani as illegal is not within its mandate,” Anyoka said.

According to Anyoka, Speaker Amason Kingi’s ruling that the allowances paid to the Speaker and the Members who have been attending Bunge Mashinani be recovered and that the EACC investigates the issues of financial appropriations is nullity since all the businesses the MCAs conducted were legally protected by a gazette notice that has never been challenged in court.

“The Senate will have to be specific on the law that was violated for their recommendation to be valid. Otherwise, all the transactions that were conducted by a process that was properly gazetted and without any due challenge in court were legal and recovery of finances is something that should not be mentioned anywhere,” the advocate said.

Anyoka said even the deliberation that the Senate writes to the Controller of Budget to stop funding to the County is misleading and that such action should be founded on a specific violation of a particular law.

“Release of funds cannot be done in such arbitrary manner,” he advised.

Kakamega Senator Bony Khalwale faulted the ruling by Kingi saying it was pre-emptive of the mandate the House had delegated to the Abass Committee.