Dark days for Mwangaza after MCAs send her home, again

Meru County Governor Kawira Mwangaza. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Meru MCAs have voted to impeach Governor Kawira Mwangaza for the second time.

Out of 69 assembly members, 59 yesterday supported the impeachment Motion tabled by the Majority Leader Evans Mawira. Ten Ward Reps did not attend the session.

Some of the grounds used to kick out the Governor were creation of posts without approval of the assembly, naming of a road after her husband and sending relatives to China to assess cancer treatment equipment.

A seven-member team of lawyers hired by Mwangaza, including Danstan Omari and Elias Mutuma, put up a spirited defence.

Mwangaza had filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the process, and Omari said a ruling over the issues before the House was expected from the court tomorrow.

“Any determination before the assembly is likely to prejudice a matter that is before the court,” he said.

The lawyer pleaded with the MCAs to await the court’s decision before voting for the Motion.

He argued that public participation should have been conducted in the wards, saying it was not done in the “right localities”.

He said the assembly cited ‘Faith Kawira Mwangaza’, saying the Judiciary certificate at her swearing-in had no such name.

“Public participation was done for a stranger. Are we here with the right person being the subject of this discussion?” he said.

The lawyers claimed external forces, including the Njuri Ncheke elders, influenced the impeachment debate, an allegation Mawira refuted.

Omari said the MCAs were out to impeach Mwangaza because they failed to do so when the Senate overturned the first impeachment.

Her other lawyer Mwenda Kinyua said: “We have no problem with the impeachment, but the process should be fair, should be just. “

The assembly members accused the Governor of vilifying them and her deputy Mutuma M’Ethingia, among other charges.

According to the Motion, the Governor’s relatives, including a sister, were in a technical team that toured China yet they are not medics.

A video of the said relatives inspecting the equipment was played in the House.

“You wonder why these relatives are the ones to go to China to benchmark,” Mawira said. “This alone is enough to send the governor home, Mr Speaker.”

But her lawyers argued that a letter by the Chinese private company did not specify if the Chinese had wanted Mwangaza to go there with a technical team.

Mutuma said the bill for the trip was covered by the company, not the county funds. 

“How then can we fault the Governor for misappropriation of public funds yet it was a privately funded trip?” Mutuma said.

He said Mwangaza’s personal assistant, who is also her sister, had to be on the trip.

He said MCAs had not proved Nephat Kinyua, said by MCAs as Mwangaza’s nephew, was an external linkages officer and MCAs had not brought evidence of the relationship.

On naming the road, Mutuma said there was no evidence that the road had been named after the Governor’s husband.

“Where is that signage? Where is that road named Murega Baichu Road?” he said.

But the MCAs insisted the Governor erred. “The law gives a procedure of honouring our heroes,” said Mawira, adding that the procedures need to be taken through the assembly.

Additionally, MCAs accused Mwangaza of making appointments without subjecting them to a competitive process.

To back their claims of nepotism and favouritism, Mawira read the names of people he said were the Governor’s relatives who were appointed to senior positions.

Mwangaza was also said to have excluded his deputy from CEC meetings, posted demeaning words on social media and used vulgar words about him on Baite TV, owned by her family. She is said to have encouraged his removal from the official county communication platform by his subordinates.

“They proceeded to evict him from his official office to another building adjacent that does not befit his stature,” Mawira said. 

Some of the Deputy Governor’s staff were also sacked, he said.

Mawira said M’Ethingia had a right to enjoy privileges his office was entitled to, but Mwangaza had “encouraged” her Chief of Staff Harrison Gitonga to demean him.

He presented a screen grab of a WhatsApp comment of Mwangaza apparently disparaging M’Ethingia.

Mawira further claimed the Governor had demeaned Meru leaders by referring to them as a “cartel” in a meeting at Laare attended by President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua.

Another charge was the irregular appointment of some chief officers. “The Governor contravened the law by appointing one Kenneth Riungu without the approval of Assembly,” Mawira said.

He said four officers were paid for a year for work they had not rendered after she sent them on compulsory leave, leading to loss of resources.

MCAs said Mwangaza disregarded a court order that the four to be reinstated.

Mawira said the Governor’s creation of a team to oversee revenue collection in Meru town was illegal as MCAs had not approved such posts.

Minority Leader Mwenda Ithili seconded the Motion, saying the Governor’s leadership had become a burden to the people.

“Governor Kawira Mwangaza has failed. We can’t see (good) leadership in her governance. We want to correct that,” said Ithili.

He said the governor should be a unifying factor, but had failed to do so by vilifying other leaders, and had excluded MCAs from county development affairs.

“She has excluded MCAs because we don’t praise her. Our mandate is not to praise the Governor,” he said.

But Omari said there was no evidence that M’Ethingia’s juniors who might have demeaned him acted on orders from Mwangaza. “Governor is being judged out of association,” he said, adding that everybody should carry their own cross.

He said there was no job description for deputy governors, and it was up to Mwangaza to assign M’Ethingia duties.

He said MCAs had taken an oath at Njuri Ncheke shrines to impeach Mwangaza.

But the Speaker, Ayub Bundi, a former Njuri Ncheke assistant secretary general, said he attended as a senior elder.

Abogeta West Rep Dennis Kiogora said what happened at the shrines were traditional prayers, not oathing. “Njuri Ncheke prayed for us. It was not an oath,” he said. 

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