Nakuru UDA affiliated MCAs ignore party directive threaten to close Assembly
The Association of Members of County Assemblies (AMCA) has rubbished a directive by the Kenya Kwanza leadership directing them to call off the planned closure of county assemblies.
The MCAs vowed that they would continue with the plan until their demands for Ward fund, security, pension and salary review were fully addressed.
Early in the week, UDA Secretary-General Cleophas Malalah directed all the Kenya Kwanza affiliated County Assemblies to cease being parties to decisions by third parties.
Malalah, in a letter directed Leaders of Majority in the assemblies to make sure that the directive was adhered to and to report any MCA who contravened this.
But AMCA Secretary-General Stanley Karanja dismissed the threats, noting that the fight was about the welfare of the MCAs and had nothing to do with the parties.
The UDA Ward representative from Naivasha East accused the government of giving them a raw deal adding that all the county assemblies would close down next week.
The vocal MCA said that they would continue to agitate for an increase of their salaries from the current KES86,000 to the previous KES165,000 which was slashed on directives from SRC.
Speaking in Naivasha after a consultative meeting, Viwandani MCA Mwangi Muraya hit out at Malalah adding that the calls for better remuneration had nothing to do with the party.
The UDA MCA noted that none of their demands had been addressed by the government leading to the current impasse.
This was echoed by Eburru-Mbaruk MCA Michael Gathanwa who said that the move to slash their salaries was meant to kill devolution.
On his part, Lakeview MCA Alex Mbugua wondered why the government had refused to give MCAs pension yet other retired leaders had benefited.