Council of Governors chair Peter Munya claims Kenya’s youngest MP is ignorant

Meru governor Peter Munya has asked Buuri MP Kinoti Gatobu, 27, to familiarise himself with the new Constitution.

Munya was reacting to Gatobu’s claims that he was blocking the construction of rural roads.

“Those criticising me of blocking the construction of rural roads through the court case governors have filed against the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) and the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) should be advised to read Section 15 of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution,” said an angry Munya.

Section 15 (1) of the Sixth Schedule states: “Parliament shall, by legislation, make provision for the phased transfer, over a period of not more than three years from the date of the first election of county assemblies, from the national government to the county governments of the functions assigned them under Article 185.”

Kinoti had taken to Facebook to express his displeasure with the Council of Governors (CoG) boss posting that: “We hoped that the tender for tarmacking the Kisima-Kibirichia-Kiirua-Ruiri road would be awarded this month by KeRRA, but Munya has really messed us up... He is a big disgrace and we must fight his bad leadership in all possible ways.”

But Munya claimed Kinoti, who is Kenya’s youngest MP, was suffering from one of the three maladies that the independence government set out to fight in 1963 namely; poverty, ignorance and disease.

“As governors, we have been singing the song that the remaining functions must be devolved and when we finally put our foot down, some people are all over claiming that we are blocking the construction of roads in their areas,” said Munya.

He listed several roads in Meru whose construction had been delayed because before delivering the overkill:
“Those accusing me of delaying their roads could only be suffering from one of our enemies at independence...that is ignorance.”