Kisumu MCAs ignore court order, impeach finance boss

Kisumu Finance CEC Nerry Achar. MCAs passed an impeachment motion against him over incompetence. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

Kisumu MCAs yesterday impeached Finance Executive Nerry Achar over alleged incompetence.

This is despite a case at the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi in which Mr Achar has challenged the bid to remove him from office.

The ward reps unanimously adopted a report tabled by an ad hoc committee constituted to investigate Achar that recommended his ouster.

This was after holding a secret ballot vote where 37 MCAs supported the impeachment motion against Achar while three MCAs voted against the motion.

Former Budget and Appropriation Committee chair Steve Owiti claimed that Achar had failed to appear before his team despite receiving summons.

“The committee observed that the CEC disregarded it by failing to show up or send a legal representative on the two days communicated to him to come and defend himself,” said Mr Owiti.

The MCAs had faulted Achar for declining revenue generation in the county.

“The committee found the CEC member for Finance and Economic Planning culpable of the allegations hence he is unfit to hold any public office within Kisumu County,” said Mr Owiti.

Speaker Onyango Oloo told The Standard he had written to Governor Anyang' Nyong’o on the resolution of the county assembly, adding that he hoped the Executive would act on his letter.

“The process of impeaching the CEC has been plagued with court orders. The order had suspended the exercise till August 12, which was on Monday. We were able to debate it today and the CEC stands impeached,” said Mr Oloo.

But Director of Communication Aloyce Ager termed the impeachment "an act of contempt of court".

"There are court orders stopping the process, which means the sitting was null and void," said Mr Ager.

Attempts to reach Achar for comment were futile as failed to respond to our telephone calls.