MCAs ought to style up and stop childish knee-jerk impeachments

What you need to know:

  • Nyeri MCAs chose to spend the night in the Assembly chamber rather than go to sleep in their homes or in hotels.
  • The MCAs had taken advantage of Mr Gachagua’s absence when he was in hospital abroad to push for the facility by intimidating the county executive.
  • After the vote, local MPs stormed Mr Nderitu Gachagua’s office to hurry him away.
  • Nyeri County Senator Mutahi Kagwe has kept a dignified distance amid this unedifying spectacle.
  • I am not aware of Mr Gachagua being under any probe by EACC or other investigatory organs of State.

Last year I saw firsthand in my native county how the craze to impeach a governor can fly on very flimsy grounds. That is why I looked askance when the contagion recently spread to Nyeri County, which borders my ancestral one.

Camouflaged under the usual vague accusations of abuse of office and misuse of funds, I have yet to know in detail how the specific charges by the Nyeri MCAs against their governor, Nderitu Gachagua, have been framed. The much I have gathered is that the standoff is not new.

The latest furore that led to the impeachment vote broke out over this year’s county budget estimates, which the MCAs reportedly altered unprocedurally and then padded with non-priority items.

The governor accused them of acting illegally, and rejected the amended estimates.

Prior to this showdown, there was another confrontation over a Sh90 million health and sauna club the MCAs wanted constructed with county funds for their enjoyment.

It is hard to understand why such a facility was necessary, and why it should cost that much. However, anybody familiar with the corruption in the counties knows how needless projects are dreamed up out of the blue simply as a channel to rip off the public.

The MCAs had taken advantage of Mr Gachagua’s absence when he was in hospital abroad to push for the facility by intimidating the county executive. Upon his return, the governor cancelled the sauna project. I don’t suppose he won many fans inside his assembly with the action he took.

I can’t confirm if a local operator known as “Moneybags” who unsuccessfully contested the Nyeri senatorial seat in 2013 is behind the governor’s woes as the latter reportedly believes. Still nobody should be surprised, knowing the animosity the billionaire has towards the governor.

There were comic moments ahead of the impeachment vote. The MCAs chose to spend the night in the Assembly chamber rather than go to sleep in their homes or in hotels. I guess the touch of melodrama was meant to win them maximum publicity.

After the vote, local MPs stormed Mr Gachagua’s office to hurry him away. The governor, who was out of the office at the time, later accused the MPs of stealing some vital files from his office. All of this drama was quite embarrassing and unbecoming.

VEHEMENT ADVERSARIES

County Senator Mutahi Kagwe has kept a dignified distance amid this unedifying spectacle. This has been interpreted by the MPs and those baying for the governor’s head as complicity, or at best, weakness. I have never had the opportunity to interact with the governor, though I personally know several of his more vehement adversaries.

My concern about his situation arises from similar impeachment shenanigans which I observed against Governor Mwangi wa Iria in the neighbouring and more populous Murang’a County. There, too, the proceedings were being driven on very threadbare, malice-induced grounds. Luckily, the Senate overturned the impeachment.

In the Murang’a case, I came to learn that one big reason for the bad blood between the MCAs and the governor was because the latter refused to authorise an amorphous Sh20 million fund to go to each county ward.

The MCAs wanted to administer the money themselves, just so that they would have bragging rights like MPs with their CDF kitty. They wanted ward offices, too, with staff. The MCAs can be quite a bother. Look at the headache they caused Governor Kivutha Kibwana of Makueni a while back.

He got so vexed he sought to have the county government dissolved and a fresh one elected before the petition was overruled by a commission of inquiry.
I am not aware of Mr Gachagua being under any probe by EACC or other investigatory organs of State. They surely would be on his case if the more unsavoury allegations against him can hold.

The governor is not without influence in high circles. He has been in the steering committee of the new Jubilee Party co-chaired by Senator Kiraitu Murungi and Dr Noah Wekesa. His younger brother, who is angling to run for the Mathira constituency seat, was once a Personal Assistant to Uhuru Kenyatta.

Absent some really gross transgression on the part of a governor, these knee-jerk impeachments are surely not what our Constitution should be about.

There are less drastic alternatives available for resolving county problems.

Until a better appreciation of devolution crystallises amongst MCAs and the public alike, we will sadly continue to witness these unseemly power plays.