By ROBERT KIPLAGAT and LEONARD KULEI
Baringo, KENYA: Members of the Baringo County Assembly have denied that plans to the introduce a Motion to have their governor Benjamin Cheboi impeached was a ploy to get him sign up to a programme that would provide them with car loans.
House Majority Leader Elijah Toroitich said it was just by coincidence that the day the notice of a Motion of impeachment moved by Churo/Amaya MCA Thomas Minito was to be debated was the day the Sh96 million loan was granted.
He said the car loan was the MCAs’ by right and was not used to entice them to oppose the impeachment Motion.
“The car loan was the right of the honourable members and there was no pressure to get it after all. We had approved it and were just waiting for the nod from the controller of budget after SRC (Salaries & Remuneration Commission) gave it a go-ahead,” said Toroitich.
Under the terms of the loan, each of the 48 Members of the County Assembly will now be entitled to a Sh2 million car loan.
The assembly received a letter of approval of the car loan from the County Treasury Executive Geoffrey Bartenge. Clerk Joseph Koech is to administer the fund.
House Deputy Majority Leader Joseph Makilap (Barwessa) also dismissed the allegations of bribery, and said they never ‘ate’ anything to shoot down the Motion.
We are happy
He said the Motion was dropped after they had realised that infighting over impeachment would lead to underdevelopment.
Earlier, a member of the County Assembly had told the Standard on Sunday on condition of anonymity that they had come up with the ploy when Governor Cheboi had refused to approve the loan.
He said under the original ploy, the MCA had not really wanted to table the Motion on the floor of the assembly but to threaten the Governor with impeachment.
However, the mover ‘breached’ the agreement and rushed the issue to the assembly.
“We are happy people, we now have no issue with the county government. It was indeed a deal, but it was not meant to go to the level that it did. All in all, we have achieved our goal,” said the MCA.
Nevertheless, the action by the MCAs exposed the simmering tensions within the County Assembly.
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