Cleared of wrongdoing: Joho ally survives ouster motion

Mombasa County Governor Hassan Joho (right) and county transport executive Tawfiq Balala at a past event. [File, Standard]

The Mombasa County Transport executive has survived an impeachment attempt after a panel of MCAs cleared him of all the six allegations.

The select committee headed by Deputy Speaker Fadhil Makarani tabled its report before the County Assembly on Thursday, clearing Tawfiq Balala of any wrongdoing, hence saving him from an ouster process initiated last month.

The report says the allegations against Balala in the impeachment motion moved by Jomvu Kuu MCA Athman Shebe could not be substantiated.

The allegations included incompetence and violation of the Constitution.

The MCAs who supported the motion had accused Mr Balala of failing to implement a streetlighting project, poor management of revenue collection, failure to formulate department policies and proposals for enactment by the County Assembly and failure to provide leadership to complete projects and programmes.

Other allegations included failing to honour invitation by the Transport Committee and failure to submit quarterly department reports.

Speaker Harub Khartri chaired the session that adopted the report by the select committee clearing Balala. The motion had caused weeks of tension between Governor Hassan Joho’s executive team and the County Assembly.

The report said the committee had heard from Balala that the county’s streetlighting capacity was 70,000 lighting points but actual installed lighting was 27,900.

Meanwhile, a group of youth launched a movement dubbed Fagia to remove MCAs from office.