Nyamira: New Assembly Speaker, Clerk take office after 10 months leadership row

Calm has returned to the Nyamira County Assembly after a leadership dispute gripped the devolved unit for over ten months.

Thaddeus Nyabaro has officially taken over as the new Speaker of the Assembly, while Duke Onyari has assumed the Office of Clerk.

This comes following a leadership crisis witnessed in the Assembly for more than ten months, following the ouster of the former Speaker, Enock Okero, in September last year, before he headed to court to challenge his dismissal.

Addressing journalists at the official assembly premises, Speaker Thaddeus Nyabaro and the Majority Leader in the Assembly welcomed some of the ward representatives who were part of the ‘Bunge Mashinani’ (grassroots assembly) faction, while advising those remaining to join them to facilitate House business.

Speaker Nyabaro also confirmed receiving the 2025/26 budget estimates, ready for discussion and refinement before approval.

The Senate Devolution Committee was left stunned, on April 8, 2025, after revelations that Nyamira County is operating with two parallel county assemblies — each holding sittings in separate chambers.

The committee heard that both factions have been independently writing to the Office of the Controller of Budget, seeking approval to withdraw public funds.

The other faction, on the other hand, held parallel assembly sittings led by the Deputy Speaker and the then self-proclaimed Speaker Thaddeus Nyabaro.

At one point, the session almost degenerated into a fist fight as Senators from the neighboring counties - Okong’o Omogeni (Nyamira) and Richard Onyonka (Kisii) - engaged in a bitter exchange.

Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o, who also appeared before the committee, told the session that her office has been receiving letters from the two Nyamira assemblies, and her office has been wondering which letter to process.

The two groups returned to Nyamira with no solution, each maintaining a hardline stance to hold their sessions in respective chambers during Wednesday's sittings.