Senate to hear Governor Nyaribo impeachment through plenary

Nyamira County Governor Amos Nyaribo before the Senate's CPAC committee. (Elvis Ogina, Standard)

The Senate is set to either uphold or dismiss the impeachment of Nyamira Governor Amos Nyaribo through the plenary next week on Wednesday and Thursday.

Senate Deputy Speaker Kathuri Murungi said that the house arrived at the decision after the proposal to have a special 11 team of Senators to investigate the charges against Nyaribo and table a report before the house failed to get support of members.

Murungi told the house that Nyaribo who was impeached by the Nyamira County Assembly after 23 Members of County Assembly supported the motion moved by Bonyamatuta Ward MCA Julius Matwere is facing the charges of gross violation of the constitution and abuse of office.

“Nyaribo is accused of having deliberately engaged, endorsed and supported an unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional Bunge Mashinani gazetted by Enock Okero vide Kenya Gazette Notice No.14229 of 2024 dated the 29th of October 2024 despite knowledge of the fact that Okero had been removed from office of Speaker by way of impeachment,” said Murungi.

Nyaribo is facing the accusations that on November 26, 2024, assented to the Nyamira County Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2024 without the approval of the County Assembly of Nyamira in total defiance to the Constitutional principle of separation of powers.

The Governor is accused of having appointed Dr Peris Oroko to the County Executive Committee without the approval of the County Assembly of Nyamira in total disregard of the due process of the law and supervised her integration into the payroll system since June 21, 2025.

Nyaribo is accused of having appointed Members to the Boards of Keroka and Nyamira Municipalities without the approval of the County Assembly of Nyamira in direct defiance of the Constitution of Kenya (2010), the Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2011 [as amended 2019] and the Public Appointments (County Assemblies) Approval act.

“The approval of Members to the two Board of Keroka and Nyamira Municipalities was not among the business transacted during the Morning and Afternoon Sittings of the County Assembly of Nyamira on 19th November 2024 with Governor having to date retained the said Board Members in defiance of clear judicial and senatorial pronouncements” read the charges.

The Governor is accused of having appointed a Selection Panel for the recruitment of the Chairperson, Secretary and Members of the Nyamira County Public Service Board without the approval of the County Assembly of Nyamira and willfully circumvented the legitimate constitutional approval process, rendering the appointment unlawful.

The Governor is facing charges of having failed to submit Annual reports and deliver annual state of the County address to the County Assembly of Nyamira for the past two consecutive years, 2023/2024 and 2024/2025, as required by law.

Nyaribo is accused of having failed to appoint Clive Ogwora, a nominee for Member of the County Executive Committee despite the fact that the nomination was cleared by law for appointment with his disobedience of the High court order directing him to appoint Ogwora resulted into the loss of a decretal sum of Sh4.4 million.

“The actions of the Governor including delayed settlement, resulted into loss of public funds amounting to Sh6.9 Million being the decretal sum plus costs, interests and other incidentals,” read the charges.

Nyaribo is facing charges of having presided over and influenced the approval of recruitment of Staff without an approved budget as demonstrated in County Executive Committee Minutes, in his response to an inquiry from the Controller of Budget. This recruitment was approved by the County Executive with full knowledge that there was no budgetary provision.

The charges state that Governor's influence over the recruitment of hundreds of staff without a budget, in defiance of EACC advisory and County Assembly resolutions for political expediency and personal gain, constitutes a clear abuse of office aimed at fiscal plunder and violation of constitutional values and principles of governance.

“On March 9, 2023 the County Public Service Board advertised for 358 vacancies despite lack of approved budget for recruitment, a recruitment freeze by the County Assembly, and disregard for EACC advisories, this recruitment, projected to add Sh325 million annually, proceeded without any budgetary allocation or approval,” read the charges.