Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza and lawyer Mwangi Ndegwa representing the County Assembly before the Senate Nairobi on Tuesday, August 20, 2024, during her impeachment hearing.
A Member of County Assembly (MCA) of Meru last evening dragged Senate deputy speaker Kathure Murungi and Buuri MP Mugambi Rindikiri into a scheme that led to the second impeachment of Governor Kawira Mwangaza as he revealed political machinations behind woes facing the besieged county boss.
Former Meru County Assembly Majority Leader Evans Mawira, the mover of the second impeachment motion last year turned governor’s witness, detailed how he was called by the UDA party leaders to execute the plot which saw supporting MCAs pocket at least Sh80,000 for their troubles.
In the startling revelations, Mr Mawira recounted how a Nanyuki meeting convened before 2023 Christmas agreed on re-introducing a new impeachment motion against Ms Mwangaza on or around June 2024.
The meeting, he said, was attended by all Meru MPs except Senator Murungi as well as former Agriculture minister Mithika Linturi where 59 MCAs who had supported the second impeachment motion were urged to remain united.
“We were asked to remain united and so that the cause we had lost maybe at a later date will be brought back and for sure we will win it. The cause was impeaching the governor of Meru,” said Mr Mawira.
“We were given Sh20,000 each and told it was for Christmas. The money was shared by the Meru County Assembly speaker,” he added.
The MCA said the meeting was after the Senate dismissed the motion by the MCAs, an ouster plan he said was plotted by political leaders in the county who had felt the governor had gone rogue.
He told the Senate MCAs were mobilised along party lines and the first party to do that was UDA before others followed suit and issued the same directive that members were to support the impeachment of the governor.
“I was personally called by the Meru County UDA coordinator for a meeting. We met with Meru MPs caucus chairperson MP Rindikiri and Senator Murungi and we made a decision, that we communicated to other members, to withdraw support for the governor and introduce a new impeachment motion,” he said.
Benefit financially
“It is true that MCAs do benefit financially during the impeachment processes. It is only the first impeachment where there weren't any inducements. This one I believe there was and those who have not been in support of the motion have severely suffered in the assembly,” added Mr Mawira.
In the damning revelations, he said MCAs in support of the motion were facilitated for more than five days in Nairobi where they withdrew per diems, each MCA walking away with Sh80,000 with the payments taken care of under domestic travels.
“We were facilitated by the assembly to be in Nairobi for five days drawing Sh14,000 as daily subsistence allowance and were also facilitated by being given transport to and fro. This I can confirm as each MCA was paid Sh14,000 daily and Sh10,000 as transport allowance,” he said.
But after losing the impeachment bid at the Senate, he said they met at Sunstar Hotel in Nairobi the following day.
“In the meeting, it was agreed the assembly would facilitate members to be taken to a retreat to relax after the rigorous exercise. We went to Mombasa for a week along committee lines. We did committee work for two days and for the rest of the days, we sat down to organise how to sabotage the government so that it does not work,” said the Mitunguu Ward MCA.
“That is when it was agreed that a petition be introduced in the assembly that all CECs, chief officers, county secretary and chief of staff be impeached so that the government can be sabotaged and does not function because we have already lost the impeachment motion,” he added.
As part of the Mombasa deal, Mr Mawira said the petition was introduced, praying for investigation of about seven CECs, three chief officers, county secretary and the chief of staff culminating in a report by the Justice and Legal Affairs committee recommending the removal from office of the county secretary and the chief of staff and gave the assembly the freedom to introduce impeachment motion for three CECs.
“It is the governor’s case that she is a victim of political witch hunt by the political leadership in Meru. The facts have been alluded to in the affidavits of the witness,” said Governor Mwangaza’s counsel Elias Mutuma.
The development came as Ms Mwangaza on Tuesday, August 20, evening tore into evidence presented by Meru MCAs in her spirited fight to avoid the ignominy of becoming the first governor to be impeached since the 2022 elections.
This as senators were to vote on whether to save the governor or uphold the resolution by the county assembly to remove her from office by impeachment.
With the case on a knife-edge, the governor needs the support from 24 senators to overturn the resolution by the assembly, failure to which she will be sent home.
In a marathon defense, the governor’s legal team rallied the senators to dismiss the bid to remove her from office.
One witness after another poked holes into the nine particulars of three charges leveled against the first term governor which resulted in 49 out of 69 MCAs voting to oust her from office for the third time in less than two years since assuming office.
The charges include alleged gross violation of the Constitution, gross misconduct and abuse of office with particulars including irregular payments of Sh74.3 million in allowances to medics, and illegal dismissals and revocation of appointments and failing to appoint chairpersons of key county boards.
There was also the illegal dismissal of several County Board executives leading to significant financial penalties by the Employment and Labour Relations Court against the county government on account of legal costs and damages.
Gross misconduct
On the charge of gross misconduct, the governor was accused of misleading the public by falsely claiming that Sh86 million was raised after the murder of Daniel Muthiani alias Sniper, while the actual amount raised was Sh286.5 million.
The last charge of abuse of office involves authorisation of irregular payments of emergency call allowances to 161 doctors and medical officers using the wrong rates resulting in an overpayment of Sh74.3 million; use of a manual payroll to pay personnel emoluments amounting to Sh102.94 million, and employment of a bloated workforce of at least 111 personal staff in her office.
This is in addition to continued payment of full salary and benefits to a public communication officer Christus Manyara while in custody after being charged with murder of Sniper.
Taking to the floor as the first witness, Meru Finance minister Ibrahim Mutwiri dismissed the manual payroll allegations, saying the matter had been resolved in April 2024 before the impeachment motion.
He explained that the doctor’s pay was from a resolution of an April 18, 2017 return-to-work formula and the county government was within the law in making the payment as part of the implementation of the CBA.
“Once a benefit has been given, you cannot go back and retract the benefit unless a similar communication like the earlier one is done,” said Mr Mutwiri.
The CEC argued that the performance of a governor can only be informed by a report on budgetary absorption produced by the Controller of Budget.
Currently, he said, the county government has achieved 79 percent in terms of budget absorption in this fiscal year.
“The only person who can measure the financial prudence of a county government is the auditor-general but the office has confirmed the governor has prudently utilised finances of the county government,” he said.
The second witness, Dickson Munene, CEC Public Service, tore into the accusation regarding failure to appoint chairpersons of key county Boards.
In his defense, he said the county secretary by a letter dated June 18, 2023, forwarded the names of nominees of chairpersons and members of various Boards to the assembly for approval.
However, the assembly clerk responded a month later, saying his office is unable to recommend the list for transmission to the assembly because of some missing information.
On allegations of failure to implement a resolution of the assembly to dismiss the county secretary and chief of staff, Mr Munene said the governor did not receive any resolution to that effect.
“I can confirm that the document the assembly seeks to rely on does not include a resolution or an answer showing that the resolution of the joint committee was adopted or not. To that end, there is no such a resolution,” said Mr Munene.
The CEC dismissed accusations of the governor illegally dismissing heads of some Boards, an allegation that was one of the grounds of the previous impeachment, as not true.
He said that the individuals mentioned either resigned, in the case of John Ntoiti, their contracts ended or did not return to work or served their full terms.
Nonetheless, the county minister explained that it is the role of the County Public Service Board to conduct the interdictions or confer disciplinary action and the governor is not given any such powers.
“The officers were not dismissed by the governor but were sent on compulsory leave by the former county secretary. They disputed the decision and the court stayed the decision. There is no instance or incidence of dismissal,” he said.
Mr Munene further said the allegation that the county government had been slapped with a Sh4 million in damages for the alleged dismissals is not true as they were not party to the case.
On bloated workforce in the governor’s office, he said there are documents to indicate the governor has been categorical on the issue of controlling the wage bill in the county by minimising any hiring or replacement of staff.
