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Senate rejects wa Iria’s impeachment by MCAs
Nairobi – The Senate has rejected Murang’a County Assembly’s decision to impeach Governor Mwangi Wa Iria.
The County Assembly had accused the governor of gross violation of Constitution, Crimes under national law and gross misconduct including accountability in management of finances leading the county to incur huge debt.
“The committee through its thorough investigations after hearing from the witnesses established that these allegations could not be proved and therefore could not be substantiated,” said Musila.
Musila while presenting the report before the floor of Senate said allegations that the governor paid salaries to over 80 ghost county workers could not be substantiated.
“Although allegations by the County Assembly linking the governor to have breached provisions of the constitution and public finance management, the committee found out that the allegations could not be substantiated, therefore the committee agreed that Murang’a governor could not be impeached,” declared Musila.
The MCAs and lawyers witnessing against the governor pleaded with the Senate to impeach Wa Iria to serve as a lesson to governors contravening the Constitution and engaging in financial malpractices hampering realization of devolution.
“We have not come here (Senate) to make any judgment against the governor but to help Murang’a people and the entire nation for this child called devolution to work well through proper management of allocated finances,” pleaded the Murang’a County Assembly defense lawyer, Mbuthi Gethenji.
He asked Senate to impeach Wa Iria on grounds that submissions by the governor’s lawyers had unsubstantiated evidence to defeat contravened constitutional grounds cited by the MCAs.
“We ask the Senate to uphold the Murang’a County Assembly’s impeachment motion because the governor is not prepared to serve the residents provided by the Constitution. The Senate should also do amendments to lower the threshold required in impeaching the governor to ensure enhance accountability,” said Gethenji.
However, the Governors’ three lawyers argued that their client was not given chance by the County Assembly to defend himself as required by law before moving on with the impeachment motion.
“Grounds cited by the MCAs to have the governor impeached does not meet the constitutional threshold. We ask the Senate to overthrow the impeachment motion because this will be helping counties grow by providing interventions on how things should be done well,” pleaded the governor’s county lawyer, Peter Kimani.
Kimani pointed out that for the last two weeks Murang’a County business has come to a standstill due to the MCAs move to impeach Wa Iria, yet the disputing parties could have resolved their differences amicably.
“The Senate in its interventions should encourage MCAs not to use ill-motive to impeach governors in this Republic and the threshold for impeaching a governor should be raised to make it difficult to oust governors for devolution to work,” said Kimani.
Wa Iria is the third governor to be impeached by the County Assembly after the Embu Governor Martin Wambora whose impeachment was approved by the Senate but reinstated by the High Court, and Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony in June, 2015 where his impeachment was rejected by the Senate.
Iria told The Standard that he was feeling honoured after being cleared by the Senate special committee that was constituted to investigate him. He said he was ready to work with all the leaders for the sake of pushing Jubilee government development agenda geared towards attaining Vision 2030. The special committee of 11 senators was chaired by Kitui Senator David Musila. He described the two weeks since the impeachment process started as the most troubling, adding that the accusations leveled against him were political and lacked facts. "It is an honour to Murang'a people after the Senate absolved me of the accusations that prompted the county assembly to launch process to impeach me," said the governor.
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Nyeri MCAs demand refund of cash they contributed for colleague’s treatmenthttp://www.nation.co.ke/image/view/-/2931418/medRes/1158495/-/14nvmvv/-/pic2.jpg
When Nominated MCA Zipporah Wangechi Njithi asked her colleagues to contribute money to enable her travel to India for thyroid cancer treatment, she was elated when they raised over Sh500,000 of the Sh3 million she required.
But that contribution has become the source of her anguish.
This is after 13 Nyeri MCAs on Monday wrote a letter to her demanding a refund of the money they contributed to enable her travel to India for treatment.
They claim she never went to India but instead went on holiday to Mombasa.
She, however, denies this and even produces documents to show that she really went to India.
The petition by her colleagues was also sent to the clerk of the county assembly.
'WENT TO MOMBASA'
In the letter to the assembly, the MCAs are claiming that Ms Njithi did not travel to India but was instead holed up in a hotel in Mombasa.
According to Rugi Ward MCA Njoroge Githaiga, one of those who signed the letter demanding a refund, Ms Njithi used the proceeds from the harambee to buy two cars and go on holiday.
“The breakdown was very clear. She was to use Sh1 million for three months’ stay, another for treatment and the other for other expenses. We later realised she was in Mombasa,” said Mr Githaiga.
Mr Githaiga said they have given her up to Monday next week to refund the money.
“How can you go to India for only two days? This is criminal. We want this investigated as fraud.
“We are also giving her another letter on Tuesday so she can explain how she spent the cash,” said the MCA.
When the Nation visited the MCA at Skuta in Nyeri, she broke down in tears when reporters broached the question.
Nyeri MCAs exchange blows in stand-off over majority leader's election
Members of the Nyeri County Assembly on Tuesday engaged in a fist fight during a meeting called to elect a new majority leader.
Trouble started when the ward representatives allied to Mr Duncan Gituanja, who was being groomed to take over the seat, and those backing the incumbent, Mr Jesse Kamuri, clashed over how to conduct the election.
While the pro-Gituanja group wanted a vote by acclamation, those supporting Mr Kamuri wanted the election conducted by secret ballot and in the presence of the media.
“We will not have Governor Nderitu (Gachagua) dictate to us how we will run our party affairs,” said Ms Jacinta Wamae, a nominated representative.
At one point, the majority leader was asked to remain quiet after Chinga Ward Representative Paul Ngiria said it was wrong for him to address TNA party members as he had already lost his seat.
“It is wrong for Jesse to continue addressing us while we are still discussing his conduct,” said Mr Ngiria.
Last week, Majority Chief Whip James Thieri called a meeting to discuss Mr Kamuri's conduct as the majority leader.
A plan to replace him was also hatched, with some reps claiming the plot was heavily influenced by Mr Gachagua.
The governor has denied the allegations.
On Tuesday, the 36 members were also to elect a new majority leader for the party, but the whip was forced to call off the meeting when members failed to agree.
“This meeting has been postponed until we agree on how to conduct the election,” said Mr Thieri
Dedan Kimathi university to oversee coffee milling and grading in Nyeri County
Nyeri’s Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT) has been tasked with overseeing the milling and grading of the county’s coffee.
It will determine the level of milling losses and grading of coffee from Nyeri and then certify it.
Governor Nderitu Gachagua has said the county is partnering with the university in order to ensure that they safeguard the interests of coffee farmers in the county.
“As a county government we are not interested in marketing the county’s coffee, but to ensure that our farmers gets what they deserve from what they produce,” said Mr Gachagua.
Milling losses refer to coffee lost during the milling process.
In Kenya, coffee is also graded before marketing.
For each of the coffee lot produced, the coffee beans are thoroughly tested for quality and then sorted into various grades depending on size, weight and shape.
Commercial millers and marketers have in the recent past been on the receiving end with accusations that they are dishonest when calculating milling losses and grading.
They have also been accused of extending expensive loans and advance payments to farmers.
DeKUT’s Institute of Food and Bioresources Technology has a modern coffee quality control laboratory and provides consultancy services on coffee quality management as well as assisting the community, especially coffee farmers, to analyse the quality for their coffee.
Two years ago, the county government introduced a joint milling and marketing initiative for about 100 coffee factories with the aim of scouting for a buyer who would offer them the best prices.
In 2015, the highest-paid factory in Nyeri received Sh85 per kilo of cherry compared with Sh80 per kilo in 2014.
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