Governor Nderitu Gachagua laughs off impeachment threat

“Every ward has a river and they should go swim there. They also have homes and can get a massage in the comfort of their residence,” Gachagua said.

This is the message that governor is taking  the grassroots — that it is their representatives are a hindrance to service delivery.

The MCAs have not taken things lying down. They claim the governor is blocking development by failing to sanction the release funds.

During a recent confrontation between the governor’s supporters and some ward representatives,  some MCAs were roughed up by an agitated crowd which accused them of engaging in endless and unnecessary political feuds.

But the turning point has been this week where MCAs returned to the assembly and vowed to impeach Gachagua for allegedly involving his brother Rigathi Gachagua in running the affairs of the county.

“If the governor wants his brother to work in the county government, he should formally appoint him,” said Kirimukuyu MCA James Kibira. In a heated debate at the assembly, most MCAs felt it was time for Gachagua to quit before his term ends.

The assembly is also seeking to have three members of Gachagua’s Cabinet prosecuted for snubbing summons to appear before House committees.

Already, Speaker David Mugo has written to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) asking for the prosecution of CECs Charles Githinji (Health), Lucy Wanyitu (Special Programmes) and Robert Thuo of Land and Infrastructure. He said the procedure to prosecute the three had been adopted by Senate and Parliament.

Saturday, Majority Leader Duncan Gituanja said the MCAs had no personal differences with Gachagua but were playing their oversight role “and would not rest until the governor implements what we passed in the assembly”.

“We are determined to ensure the governor implements the budget as required by the Constitution. We have so many projects which have stalled due to failure by the executive to implement them,” said Gituanja.

Gituanja said debate about the recreation centre had been blown out of proportion.

He said what was being constructed was a state-of-the-art conference facility that would see the council rake in millions of shillings in revenue.

“At the moment, we have no conference facilities and we end up spending millions of shillings paying for private premises for our meetings. What we want to construct would give the county government in excess of Sh12 million every year,” the official said.

Gituanja said there was a propaganda war being waged by the county government to paint MCAs in bad light.

But Gachagua says he does not fear impeachment. “I’m told MCAs are now chanting ‘Gachagua Must Go’, but let’s be clear they have no reason to impeach me and they will not succeed,” Gachagua said.