Revealed: State House meeting that saved Waiguru

The bid to impeach Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru flopped after Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi succumbed to pressure from President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Meru Council of Elders and failed to turn up on Thursday to move the Motion in Parliament.

The President and his deputy, Mr William Ruto, reportedly held a meeting with Mr Linturi and prevailed on him to drop his plan to have Ms Waiguru removed from the Cabinet.

The MP could not be reached Friday, as his colleagues in the National Assembly and journalists frantically sought him to explain his no-show after he had vehemently stated that he would go ahead with the impeachment Motion despite opposition from the top leadership and elders from his Meru County.

Several calls and text messages to Mr Linturi’s mobile phone went unanswered the whole of Friday. Normally, the MP picks up calls at the first ring, especially if telephoned by reporters.

Contacted for comment, President Kenyatta’s spokesman, Mr Manoah Esipisu, said: “I don’t have a similar report and can neither confirm nor deny that they met.”

And Deputy President Ruto’s spokesman, Mr David Mugonyi, told the Saturday Nation last evening that he was also not aware of such a meeting.

“But the Deputy President has clearly come out and said Linturi should withdraw the Motion,” he said by telephone.

Friday, several MPs told the Saturday Nation that Mr Linturi had told them that he met the President and Mr Ruto sometime in the week and they had insisted that the Motion against Ms Waiguru be dropped.

On Wednesday, a breakfast meeting at the Panafric Hotel, Nairobi, and another in the evening ended with the MPs, who had signed the Motion pulling in different directions. But Mr Linturi had yet to decide whether he would go ahead with his motion or not.

An MP, who attended the Wednesday morning meeting, said it had been clear from the beginning that it was meant for Mr Linturi to explain his decision to drop the Motion.

“The intention of that meeting was to make the members understand why he (Linturi) was dropping the idea,” the MP said.

At the same meeting, an MP from Meru said the Meru Council of Elders (Njuuri Ncheke) were among those who had been exerting pressure on the Igembe South MP to withdraw his Motion.

While Mr Linturi had the support of MPs from the central and Mount Kenya regions, his colleagues from Deputy President Ruto’s United Republican Party (URP) had been adamant that it ought to go forward.

The MP cannot be named because he was discussing the content of a private meeting.

But URP legislators are reported to have argued that their supporters in the Rift Valley were becoming hostile towards the Jubilee Government and removing Ms Waiguru would have given them a boost.

They said that if Ms Waiguru was saved, the supporters would believe claims by Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter that the Deputy President has been a let-down to his supporters in the Rift Valley.

Mr Keter did not attend the meeting, but MPs from Central and Mount Kenya regions argued that removing Ms Waiguru from the Cabinet would anger their supporters, accusing their colleagues of trying to undermine the government.

During the meeting, it is understood that some resolved to protect Ms Waiguru should the Motion go to Parliament.

There was no consensus and it was left to Mr Linturi to decide whether or not to move the Motion in the National Assembly.