Subject: Censure against Mr. Leboo Ole Morintat, Acting County Secretary – as it were.

WHEREAS Article 195 of the Constitution expressly provides that a County Assembly or any of its committees has power to summon any person to appear before it for the purpose of giving evidence or providing information;   WHEREAS the Standing Orders of the Nairobi City County Assembly in realizing the foregoing further provides that Committees shall enjoy and exercise all the powers and privileges bestowed on County Assembly by the Constitution and statute County Assemblies Powers and Privileges Act, 2017, including the power to summon witnesses, receive evidence and to request for and receive papers and documents from the Government and the public; WHEREAS the County Assembly Select Committee on Implementation wrote invitations to the acting Nairobi City acting County Secretary as it were, Mr. Leboo Ole Morintat, to attend the Committee’s meetings for deliberations on the operationalization of the County Acts, first being the joint sitting between the Committee, the Office of the County Attorney, the County Public Service Board and the Officer of the County Secretary, held from 21st to 23rd March 2019 at Royal City Hotel, Kisumu, vide letters dated 13th March 2019, Ref. NCA/COI/COR/03/2019, and secondly, subsequent invitation via summons to the Committee’s sitting held on 27th March 2019, invitations to meetings which the then acting Country Secretary never honored nor gave an apology for not attending; WHEREAS the Committee in light of the provisions of Section 18 of the County Assemblies Powers and Privilege Act, 2017, resolved to summon Mr. Leboo Ole Morintat to appear before the Committee on Wednesday, 27th March 2019; WHEREAS the officer however failed to appear before the Committee as summoned and instead, sent a letter detailing reasons for his unavailability, key being a pending arrest warrant against him; WHEREAS in light of the foregoing, scrutiny of the warrant revealed that the same was obsolete and dispensed with, having been issued by the court on 5th December 2017 for his arrest and presentation before court on 15th December 2017; WHEREAS Section 20(1) of the County Assemblies Powers and Privileges Act, 2017 provides that every person who is summoned to give evidence or to produce a document before a County Assembly or a Committee shall be entitled to the same rights and privileges that are applicable to a witness before a court of law which protection would shield the witness from arrest per the pending warrant where it is live and subsisting; AND WHEREAS the Committee made a finding that the witness has continued to be in contempt of the Committee; NOW THEREFORE this ASSEMBLY RESOLVES as follows;-
  1. To strongly censure the acting County Secretary as it were, Mr. Leboo Ole Morintat for contempt of the County Assembly;
  2. The Assembly affirms categorically that forthwith, it shall not conduct any business with one Mr. Leboo Ole Morintat; and,
  3. The County Assembly shall consider any business transacted by the acting County Secretary as it were, Mr. Leboo Ole Morintat as null and void and will pay no recognition nor respect to any actions by the aforesaid in dispensing with the duty of the office of the County Secretary.
Notice of Motion 2nd April, 2019
Mover Hon. Pius Mbono, MCA – Vice-Chair- Select Committee on Implementation
Seconder None
Division None
Dates Debated and/or Concluded 4th April, 2019
Remarks Withdrawn pursuant to Standing Order 55
Scroll Up