Uhuru can now set up Makueni probe team

President Uhuru Kenyatta has been given the green light to set up a commission to determine the fate of the Makueni County Government.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission said a petition signed by residents had met the required threshold for dissolution.
The commission had confirmed that 41,123 of the 51,005 petitioners were registered voters in Makueni County, communications manager Tabitha Mutemi said. The rest were rejected because the signatories were not registered in the county.

“The threshold in law is set at 10 per cent of total registered voters in the county. In Makueni’s case, confirmed signatures were 13.78 per cent of the 298,474 registered voters,” Ms Mutemi said.

The commission said it had verified the signatures in three days and sent its report to the President.

INVESTIGATED ALLEGATIONS

The Constitution says that the President can only suspend a county government after an independent commission has investigated allegations made in a petition. The Senate must, however, authorise the disbanding of the government.

If the county government is dissolved, fresh elections for the governor and county assembly members must be held in 90 days.

This comes amid calls from some Makueni leaders for dialogue to stop the dissolution.

Chief Whip Jackson Ngovi accused Governor Kivutha Kibwana of pushing for dissolution without allowing room for dialogue. “Let the governor state if he ever called a meeting with the assembly members to try and find a way forward,” Mr Ngovi said.

Makueni MP Daniel Maanzo appealed to residents to withdraw the petition. “The process of dissolving the county government has started and it can only be stopped by the people,” he said.

Last week, a meeting between President Kenyatta and governors, among them Prof Kibwana, agreed that talks with assembly members had failed.

Additional reporting by Lilian Mutavi