Suspended Nyeri County Energy executive Joseph Kiragu now tenders his resignation letter

Nyeri County Governor Nderitu Gachagua addresses the members of county Assembly on April 28 2016,where only 15 members attended out of 47. One of the three county executive committee members who were sent on a three-month compulsory leave has resigned. (PHOTO: KIBATA KIHU/ STANDARD)

One of the three county executive committee members who were sent on a three-month compulsory leave has resigned.

Energy Executive Joseph Kiragu handed over his resignation letter to the county government, saying that his tenure was “untenable”.

Nyeri County Secretary Alice Wachira confirmed that Kiragu had resigned.

Kiragu is the latest casualty of the volatile Nyeri County Cabinet, where only three out of the original ten members are still serving as county executives.

Currently, there are two sets of county executives occupying the same docket after Governor Nderitu Gachagua  witnessed the swearing in of two nominees earlier this week.

The first to face the axe was Culture, Gender and Social Development Executive Cecilia Ndungu who was dismissed on June 24, 2014. She learnt about her sacking through the media. 

Ms Ndungu then challenged her sacking at the Industrial Court and filed a petition urging the court to issue a conservatory order of stay in office, pending the hearing of her petition.

Through her lawyer Ng’ang’a Munene, she termed her dismissal as arbitrary.

“Furthermore, I was never accorded any opportunity to be heard and no reasons were given for my dismissal,” she said.

When Ndungu moved to court to challenge the decision, Gachagua dismantled her docket and redistributed its departments to other ministries, rendering her position non-existent.

HOLD BRIEF

He then fired Agriculture Executive Shadrack Mubea on April 7 2015, on claims that he had neglected duty and that he “was unable to provide strategic leadership and management skills needed in the agriculture docket. In July, Infrastructure Executive John Maina, his Finance counterpart Martin Wamwea and Chief of Staff in the governor’s office Simon Wachira were accused of fraudulently paying over Sh3 million to a company.

Nyeri Health Executive Charles Githinji held down the fort for his boss as he attempted to hold brief in three dockets; Agriculture, Health and Finance.

In an attempt to stabilise his government, Gachagua nominated Robert Thuo to take over the Agriculture docket. He is currently acting executive for two departments namely the Infrastructure and Roads and Energy.

In December 2015, Gachagua sent Priscillah Wanyiri (Special Programmes Executive), Elijah Nguyo (Education, Information and Communication Technology) and Kiragu (Energy) on compulsory leave and replaced them with Erastus Muriuki (Education) and Lucy Wanyitu (Special Programmes).

However this week as Muriuki and Wanyitu were sworn in, the fate of Nguyo Wanyiri and Kiragu remained uncertain after they reported back to work to find their departments occupied.

Mr Nguyo said he reported back to work on Monday and was now awaiting further direction from the appointing authority.