Beatrice Elachi, Nairobi County Assembly Speaker announced her resignation on Tuesday citing that her tenure was untenable due to ‘life-threatening incidents’.
“It has been tough and I can’t hold any longer. I, therefore, tender my resignation and thank President Uhuru Kenyatta for giving me this opportunity to serve under his Jubilee administration,” she said a televised address.
“For the last few days there have been life-threatening incidences. I did not have to wait to see somebody die in this office. I’m a mother,” she added.
She handed over to her deputy John Kamangu, the Ruai Member of the County Assembly to take up the job in an acting capacity.
Honoured to receive the Presidential Award Chief of the Burning Spear, CBS pic.twitter.com/9H09Y0u8c5
— BEATRICE ELACHI (@BEATRICEELACHI) April 19, 2016
Elachi was nominated into the Senate after the 2013 General Elections.
She became the House’s Majority Whip and the most influential woman in the 11th Parliament according to “86 and Counting: Women Leaders in Kenya’s 11th Parliament’ by the Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK.
“Had she allowed herself to be swayed by the mass movement of politicians towards a party that promised more, Beatrice would probably not have been in Parliament today,” AMWIK says.
She won the Speaker of the Nairobi County Assembly’s seat on 6th September 2017, after replacing Alex Ole Magelo who didn’t contest.
She was born in 1973 in Kakamega, Western Kenya in a family of four. Beatrice schooled in St. Teresa’s Primary School for her Primary Education, she joined Moi Girls Vokoli High School, in Vihiga County for her secondary education before joining Africa Nazarene University in Nairobi for her Degree and Masters in Bachelor of Arts degree in Peace and Security Studies.
In 2003, she was appointed a programme officer at the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK). Two years later, she joined Prof Wanjiku Kabira at the Women Political Alliance in preparation for the Banana/Orange referendum campaigns.
A year later, she was appointed the executive director of the League of Women Voters. According to AMWIK, two years later, in 2010, she found herself in Mwai Kibaki’s succession intrigues as an active member of the Party of National Unity (PNU).
In 2017, through the Jubilee Alliance, she won the Dagoretti North Constituency primary elections.
However, she lost to Dagoretti North Constituency MP, Paul Simba Arati in the August general elections.
In the same year, she was nominated and elected as speaker of the Nairobi County Assembly. She started working from January 2018.
