Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Ken Ngondi has said he respects women and Muslims in particular following a ‘scandalous video clip’ doing rounds on social media.
Speaking at City Hall, Ngondi said a clip circulating online showing him forcing himself to greet a female MCA was taken out of context.
In the video taken in November 2022, the Speaker is being ushered into the members lounge for a surprise birthday.
He greets everybody by hand.
The members are seen singing and ululating and telling him “Happy birthday”.
Several people said it was wrong to greet the female MCA.
“I want to reach out the family of Mzee Abey and his daughter Hon Fatuma. The event of my surprise birthday party on November 2022 organised by women leaders, was blown out of context, the occurrence of the day was not meant to disparage anybody. I have a lot of respect for women and Muslim leaders,” Ngondi said.
Majority leader Peter Imwatok said about a month and a half later after the General elections, both the Speaker and him who share a birthday month with their birthdays being two days apart were surprised by being ushered into the Member’s lounge for a cake cutting session by the female nominated Members of County Assembly.
The event was aimed at appreciating them as the house Leadership.
“The speaker and myself were unaware of this surprise and so as the Speaker and I walked into the member’s lounge where the surprise was, we were shocked to see all the Members gathered together to wish us a happy birthday,” he said.
Arising from this, there is a video that is circulating on social media platforms of an incident that happened on the material day when the Speaker and Majority Leader were surprised by the nominated female MCAs.
Imwatok said the the said video, which is not the full clip of what actually transpired, has been taken out of context and is malicious as it tries to portray the Speaker in a negative manner.
“The Hon. Speaker is perturbed by the video and has spoken to Hon. Fatuma Abbey who is a very vibrant female MCA as she contributes to the mandate of the Assembly through robust debate and contributions. The Speaker has also gone further to contact the Hon. Member’s Father to affirm that there was no sinister motive,” Imwatok added.
He said Ngondi respects all women and is revered by the Islamic fraternity as is evidenced by his immediate workforce where his Personal Assistant is a Muslim lady.
Besides, he has also nominated another Muslim MCA to serve in the Speaker’s panel.
“It is unfortunate that a ring of extortionists has decided to use this clip as a way of extorting the Speaker. However, the matter has been taken up by the Powers and Privileges Committee who will carry out their investigations and take action against those found culpable,” Imwatok said.