Kidero seeks court help to stop impeachment motion

Nairobi County Governor Evans Kidero has gone to court to block an impeachment motion against him.

The governor was summoned to appear before the county assembly on Tuesday to respond to allegations against him.

Walter Mongare, Dr Kidero's communication officer, said the motion was politically motivated.

Mr Mong'are said the executive was not avoiding accountability and that competency questions can be raised during regular House proceedings.

In the motion sponsored by Viwandani MCA Samuel Nyangwara, Governor Kidero is accused of failing to control the county's ballooning debt, now standing at Sh42 billion, irregular awarding of tenders and abuse of office.

The assembly has been divided in the past few weeks, with ODM members clashing with Jubilee MCAs, leading to scuffles in the chambers on Thursday afternoon.

Speaking to the Nation, Deputy Minority Leader Ngaruiya Chege said ODM lawmakers had been lobbying to stop the motion from being debated.

Mr Chege said the ODM reps then drafted another motion to impeach Speaker Alex ole Magelo, which failed after 20 Jubilee-affiliated MCAs withdrew their signatures.

“We as Jubilee found out this motion to impeach Ole Magelo was meant to act as a diversion from the real business, and that is why as a party we de-whipped our members to withdraw their signatures,” he said.

However, Mr Chege alleged that some assembly members had been compromised and were told to stay away from the assembly for three days to deny the House a quorum.

But Cord MCA Wilson Ochola (Utalii) has denied claims that he and his colleagues were bribed to cause chaos during the tabling of the motion, saying they disrupted the session to defend their party.

Mr Ochola said the motion would not be debated and that it would be withdrawn by Tuesday.

He said Cord holds the majority in the House and will not allow the opposition to tell them what to do.