I can’t be in same WhatsApp group with Meru MCAs: Governor Mwangaza
Meru governor Kawira Mwangaza on October 24, 2022. She refused to respond to allegations raised by EACC on her running of county affairs saying she is yet to receive the letter from the anti-graft agency.
On Sunday, members of the Meru County Assembly woke up to find their WhatsApp group, “Meru County MCAs 2022” disbanded.
This, they say, was the only link between them and the local governor Kawira Mwangaza.
Governor Mwangaza, who was the founder and administrator of the group, removed all the MCAs and disbanded it as the tiff with the county legislators escalated.
On Sunday, Majority Leader Evans Mawira said: “The governor has removed all elected MCAs from the WhatsApp group. She doesn’t want anything to do with us.”
He added in a post on his Facebook page: “Meru County government has been dissolved. We are now going back to elections.”
The WhatsApp group was one of the tools developed by the governor to foster communication and a bond between the executive and the MCAs.
On Saturday, the governor questioned how the MCAs could accuse her of not listening to them yet among other measures, she had formed the WhatsApp group immediately after she was sworn in, to keep in touch with them.
The two warring groups
But with the governor and the ward reps not seeing eye to eye, there was no reason for the two warring groups to be under one roof.
Addressing journalists on Monday, Governor Mwangaza confirmed that she had disbanded the WhatsApp group due to the raging differences with the Ward reps.
“I am the one who created the WhatsApp group, how do you stay in the same group yet you do not get along? If you can’t agree, you leave the group," she charged.
"However, removing them from a WhatsApp group is not reason enough to report me to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC),” Governor Mwangaza added.
She said the social media group was an informal arrangement that did not require a formal procedure to terminate.
The governor maintained that she would no longer engage informally with the MCAs since they cannot be trusted.
“The law is very clear on the mandate of every elected leader. Let everyone stick to their duty as per the law,” Ms Mwangaza said.
With all channels of communication between the MCAs and the governor now closed, Senator Kathuri Murungi, who is also Senate deputy speaker, has offered to mediate the tussle.
