So who is attempting to overthrow the legitimate County Government of Kawira Mwangaza?

Meru County Governor Kawira Mwangaza (centre) flanked by her deputy Mutuma M'Ethingia (left) and her lawyer Elius Mutuma breaks down at the Senate Chambers, Parliament buildings, Nairobi on December 30, 2022. [ Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Governor Kawira Mwangaza won the 2022 election to represent the people of Meru fair and square. Audaciously and running on an independent ticket, she defeated the billionaire political giant Kiraitu Murungi and the now Agriculture minister Mithika Linturi.

In the process, she floored Azimio, led by President Kenyatta and political colossus Raila Odinga and Kenya Kwanza, led by then DP William Ruto.
It is my considered theory that it is these two political formations that want to dim Mwangaza’s light in Meru County.

And this is why. First her flaws. The Meru Governor has this narrow view that she is Independent. She also does not seem to fully appreciate or fully acknowledge the existence of MCAs and a legitimate county assembly that provides oversight to her Executive wing of government.

In the same vein, the governor according to reports, has elevated the role of her musician husband, one Baichu Murega, beyond their home.
She has been on a political honeymoon since November 2022. When it ended, she either did not notice or was high on power.

Other than political inexperience and naivety, Mwangaza has to contend with economic interests of the county administrations before her, which presumably controlled mega contracts.
It is reasonable to surmise that beneficiaries of each of the lucrative projects and programmes must have hoped for continuity.

Then there are pending bills accumulated by the previous regimes, which run into billions of shillings and which Mwangaza declined or delayed to pay. The new sheriffs in Meru, among them MCAs, MPs and powerful Cabinet ministers, have an interest in politico-economic and commercial activities around the county seat of power, including for purposes of 2027 politics and attendant financing needs.
My theory therefore is that Mwangaza’s troubles could be emanating from lack of capacity to ‘understand’ this political reality and matrix.
And she has landed herself in the soup, not once and not twice.

The first time, she was bailed out by the presidency. Now this office looks disinterested, at least publicly.

One of President Ruto’s most bitter moments in the last election was the Bomas ‘betrayal’, when then President Uhuru Kenyatta’s top brass attempted to block his win.
Luckily for Dr Ruto, he had information on Uhuru’s inner circle’s workings and put it to good use.

And it is my opinion that this is what Governor Mwangaza could be facing. And because the president and the Kenya Kwanza government have been to Kenya’s political purgatory, they understand the Mwangaza situation better than she does.

To assist those people fixated on kicking her out therefore is to aid the dismembering of devolution and to set a dangerous precedent.

Mwangaza is not worse than any of her other 46 colleagues. The grave, naive mistakes she has committed can be reversed. And the only person capable of bailing her out is President Ruto.
Unless of course she has refused to fully embrace the President’s Bottom Up Economic Empowerment Transformation Agenda (BETA) development and political agenda.

This is not optional for any county government, because on assumption of office, the Kenya Kwanza manifesto became official government policy.
Over to your Excellency. Tether the political dogs baying for the blood of Kawira Mwangaza.

The writer is a media practitioner