Governor Mwangaza braces for fourth impeachment motion
Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza.
Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza is set to face her fourth impeachment trial with two counts of abuse of office and misappropriation of public funds.
The notice of motion, coming three weeks shy of Ms Mwangaza’s second year as County boss, includes 11 specific allegations.
Nominated MCA Zipporah Kinya will on Wednesday table the notice of Motion, kicking off the process of removing the county boss from office.
The impeachment motion in the assembly comes even as nine residents petitioned President William Ruto to suspend the county, arguing that the government has failed the tenets of devolution.
The assembly first attempted an impeachment process against the county chief in November 2022, barely four months in office, before the motion was stopped by the court for lack of public participation.
Undeterred, the determined MCAs filed the second motion shortly after and impeached the governor, only for the senate to fail to uphold the allegations leveled against her in December 2022.
In November last year, the ward representatives filed another impeachment motion, which was also overturned by a resolution of the Senate.
On Wednesday, Ms Mwangaza will be notified of the allegations, which include illegally revoking the appointment of the County Public Service Board Secretary, Virginia Kagwiria, failing to appoint various autonomous board chairpersons, and failure to implement or report back on resolutions of the County Assembly.
Other charges are irregularly and illegally dismissing her legal adviser, illegally dismissing several board executives, and appointing a county attorney without vetting by the County Assembly.
Ms Mwangaza is also on the MCAs' chopping board for misleading the public by giving false information that MCAs had raised Sh86 million for the family of the late blogger, Bernard Muthiani, popularly known as ''Sniper''.
The Meru Governor is also accused of irregularly paying Sh74 million as emergency call allowances to doctors, employing 111 personal staff leading to a wage bill of Sh500 million, and paying about Sh103 million in salaries through a manual payroll.
She is also faulted for paying a full salary to Christus Manyara, a public communication officer, despite being charged with murder, against the Public Service Commission disciplinary manual.
But speaking at a local radio station on Monday, Ms Mwangaza said she still supports the suspension of the county government for fresh elections.
“They raised many concerns including the donation of cows and my personal community initiatives which I adhered to. I made an effort to seek out every MCA so that we work together, but those who agreed were removed from assembly committees. Despite this, I recently agreed to reconciliation talks led by the Njuri Ncheke Council of Elders which are ongoing,” Ms Mwangaza said.
She added that she has also given in to MCAs’ demands to allocate more development funds to the wards, leading to the allocation of Sh33 million per ward.
“The impeachments have now become a joke and if this continues, we should suspend the government and go back to the people,” the governor said.
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The motion is said to have been endorsed by more than 50 ward representatives.
After tabling the motion, the MCAs are expected to conduct public participation before Governor Mwangaza tables her response.
