Jubilee orders Kirinyaga MCAs to drop Waiguru ouster motion

Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru. Jubilee Party headquarters ordered the ward reps to drop the motion against the governor. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The MCAs accuse Ms Waiguru of failing to deliver the annual state of the county address to the assembly and buying a vehicle without tendering.

  • Governor Waiguru has rejected the claim accusing the MCAs of dwelling on petty issues instead of focusing on the war against the coronavirus.

Plans by Members of Kirinyaga County Assembly to impeach Governor Anne Waiguru have encountered political headwinds after the Jubilee Party headquarters ordered the ward reps to drop the motion.

Instead Party Secretary-General Raphael Tuju asked the MCAs to first exhaust all internal party dispute resolution mechanisms before filing such a motion. He warned that this could impinge on the party’s national agenda.

PARTY AGENDA

“Jubilee party takes great exception in this scheme that is not only meant to derail the party’s agenda in the county but also nationally,” Mr Tuju said in a letter to the Majority Leader in the assembly John Gitari. The letter was copied to all Jubilee MCAs in the county assembly.

The motion to impeach the governor was filed in the House on Wednesday with the MCAs accusing the county chief of gross violation of the Constitution, abuse of office and gross misconduct.

The MCAs accuse Ms Waiguru of failing to deliver the annual state of the county address to the assembly and buying a vehicle without tendering.

They also claim the governor used her office to improperly confer a benefit to herself when she was irregularly paid for travel allowances by way of imprests amounting to Sh10.6 million, yet she did not travel. The amount was paid to her personal account.

Governor Waiguru has rejected the claim accusing the MCAs of dwelling on petty issues instead of focusing on the war against the coronavirus.

“It is unfortunate that at a time when the country, and indeed the whole world, is focused on dealing with [the] coronavirus health pandemic, some MCAs have opted to dwell on pettiness and political brinkmanship of filling a frivolous motion to impeach me without any foundation," she said in a statement.

DEADLY CORONAVIRUS

She observed that the issues raised about her are so basic that they are an embarrassment to the Constitution they (MCAs) seek to protect.

In the letter to Majority leader, Mr Tuju echoed the governor’s sentiments that the motion comes in the midst of the national efforts to combat the deadly coronavirus

“This of concern because the entire country is in the middle of combating the global Covid-19 pandemic. The county leadership should be the one fighting the scourge and politicking like the one being threatened by some MCAs is a diversion the party cannot take,” he said.

Mr Tuju, who is also the Cabinet Secretary without portfolio, further directed all the party MCAs, both elected and nominated, to disassociate themselves with the planned motion against the governor and channel their energies in the war against Covid-19.