MP Samuel Arama dismisses calls for Matiang’i impeachment

Nakuru West Mp Samuel Arama addressing the press after issuing National Government Constituencies Development Fund bursary cheques to parents at his office on May 24, 2021.[Kipsang Joseph,Standard]

Nakuru Town West MP Samuel Arama has dismissed his colleagues' plan to impeach Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i later this week in the National Assembly.

Speaking after issuing bursary cheques worth Sh11.2 million to his constituents, Arama said that such a motion would be dead on arrival, citing that there are no sufficient grounds to oust the CS.

“I am surprised that my colleagues have hatched a plan to impeach Matiang’i over some flimsy grounds. They have forgotten an impeachment must meet a constitutional threshold,” said Arama.

The MP said that a majority of those crying foul after years of cordial relationship with the CS had been denied opportunity to further their personal agenda.

“One of the MPs crying foul wanted the CS to allow him use the police to undermine other leaders. Matiang’i told him off and he has now turned against him,” said Arama.

The second term lawmaker pointed out that the appointing authority was confident in the way the CS performed his roles and was going for an even greater seat in 2022.

He accused those complaining over the Bonchari mini-polls of attempting to spark a revolt against Matiang’i in his own backyard.

“The President is not complaining about him. Bonchari people are not complaining. It is only a few outsider MPs who went there with a motive to paint a bad image about the CS. Matiang’i will be on the presidential ballot in 2022 and they won’t stop him,” said Arama.

He called on the leaders to instead respect the current leadership and the law to be on the right side without brushing police the wrong way.

“These are the same people who have since 2017 been hurling insults at President Uhuru Kenyatta. They seek attention by going where they know there will be a controversy,” he said.

MPs Ngunjiri Wambugu (Nyeri town) on May 21 intimated that there was a plan to impeach the CS whom he accused of being rogue.

“There is this one Cabinet Secretary who somehow thinks he’s untouchable. We get insulted here every day as we protect the government he works for, then he thinks he can run over us the way he runs over everyone else,” Wambugu wrote on Facebook.

Ngunjiri who is associated with Kieleweke faction of the Jubilee Party, said they would join forces with Tangatanga faction and ODM to ensure the CS is voted out.

His sentiments came barely two days after Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi announced the same plan on May 19, accusing the CS of abusing the police service and disobeying court orders in the past.

“In all the by-elections that we have held in this country, Matiang'í has been sending thousands of police officers because he wants his preferred candidate to win. We shall impeach him in the next two weeks," said Sudi.

The Tangatanga faction has since their fallout with the Kieleweke faction cried foul over what they termed as selective discrimination by the police during mini-polls in Nakuru and Bonchari.

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