Machakos MCAs impeach deputy governor

Machakos Deputy Governor Bernard Kiala has been impeached through a majority vote in the county assembly.

Mr Kiala was impeached on the grounds of insubordination to Governor Alfred Mutua, nepotism and abuse of office.

The county assembly on Wednesday debated a report prepared by an ad hoc committee that had been set up to investigate the accusations.

During the vote, 40 out of the 59 members voted for Mr Kiala's impeachment.

The fate of the deputy governor now sits with the Senate.

Mr Kiala said he had expected the outcome and was confident of a fair hearing at the Senate.

“The motion is clearly sponsored by the Machakos government and I did not expect the assembly to give me a fair hearing. I was never called to appear before the committee at any one point,” he added.

CASE MOVES TO SENATE

He said he was confident the Senate would give him a fair hearing and prove that the grounds for the impeachment were not valid.

The report had many other grounds on which Mr Kiala could be impeached, according to the Speaker of the County Assembly Bernard Mungata.

“The voting was done based on the final report tabled in the House and the threshold was met to impeach the deputy governor,” said Mr Mungata.

The Machakos County Assembly has 59 members, and two-thirds of them constitute 39 members.

Mr Mungata added that the next step would be to forward the report that was tabled and voted in the assembly to the Senate, where the matter would be debated.

STANDING ORDER

“The standing order requires that we forward the report to the senate. We will forward it in two days where the next step shall be decided,” he added.

The motion of impeachment against the deputy governor was tabled in the assembly last week and an ad hoc committee was formed and tasked with the responsibility of generating a report in seven days.

The secretary to the ad hoc committee, Leonard Katela, said the committee had invited Mr Kiala to appear before it but he chose to send his lawyer instead.

“We gave the lawyer who appeared all the documents for the report, but since they were (seeking) to stop the impeachment legally, they did not present anything to the committee,” he added.

Earlier, lawyer James Orengo had appeared at the Machakos High Court seeking to block the censure motion against the deputy governor.