Governor Amos Nyaribo is now contemplating writing to President William Ruto to appoint a special committee to run Nyamira County affairs or face possible dissolution, exposing deep-seated divisions within the county leadership.
The county boss appeared before the County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) to respond to the Sh5.8 billion audit query on the county's budget for the 2023/2024 financial year, which failed to take off due to the late submission of the audit report.
Mr Nyaribo, who had waited for nearly five hours before the committee led by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang could begin, confessed that he did not know who the legitimate county clerk was until last week, revealing the simmering antagonism pitting the county executive, Senator Erick Okong'o and members of the county assembly, much to the bewilderment of the senators.
Explaining the reason for the delayed submissions, Mr Nyaribo said he had received two invitations to respond to audit queries, but the county clerk who summoned him was "illegal" as he had been suspended by the court without no conservatory order.
“We were divided until a week ago when the court decided who the legal county clerk is,” he stated on Wednesday.
“I must obey the law. Until the court pronounced itself, we were divided. The clerk who was writing was suspended and was still writing.”
Senators were temporarily thrown into confusion when it emerged that Nyamira County has two factions and is currently run by two parallel county assemblies – with two speakers and two clerks.
According to the governor, Nyamira has a functional Bunge Mashinani led by Speaker Enock Okero, who he said had been legally reinstated by the courts, and another led by the speaker "who was declared illegal".
“We are now very confused. We want someone to paint a vivid picture of what is happening in Nyamira. It appears there are two speakers, two clerks, or even two governors, who knows,” stated Kajwang.
“We have found ourselves having the governor explaining to us what is happening in the county, which is very odd.”
Mr Erastus Menge, the county lawyer, said the county assembly was embroiled in a vicious legal battle over who was the legitimate speaker between Mr Okero, who was granted a conservatory order following his removal from office, and former Ekerenyo Ward MCA Thaddeus Nyabaro, who was elected speaker in December 2024.
The committee chairman sought to establish whether the problem was that the county lawyer was giving bad advice to his boss or that the governor was too stubborn to seek and listen to advice, reiterating the legal remedies for late submission of audit reports.
The Public Audit Act states that “Audit reports shall be submitted to Parliament or the relevant county assembly. Within three months after receiving an audit report, Parliament or the county assembly shall debate and consider the report and take appropriate action.”
Kitui Senator, Enock Wambua appealed to the county administration led by Governor Nyaribo to remedy the situation stating, "To whom much is given, much is expected. As a leader, you must be willing to be held to the highest standards of accountability.”
In his defence, Mr Nyaribo blamed Senator Okong’o and a group of MCAs for fuelling divisions despite his attempts to bring the warring factions together.
“Our senator, he is the one who has been fuelling the fire and he is like a priest here,” he stated before the session quickly degenerated into counter-accusations between the governor, senator and the MCAs as the shocked senators watched helplessly.
The MCAs accused the governor of running serious county affairs with the help of illegals, to which the county boss responded that legal procedures had been duly followed, including the meetings of the Bunge Mashinani at which the supplementary budget was passed.
Speaker Okero resorted to the Bunge Mashinani after the MCAs denied him access to his office even after the High Court ruled that Mr Nyabaro's election as speaker was illegal.
“It is unfortunate that we are wasting the Senate's time asking which faction is worse. The governor went outside and started operating Bunge Mashinani. He did not go with the mace or sergeants at arms,” stated one of the MCAs.
“We don’t know if the supplementary budget was passed because it never came to the House. Nyamira county offices, the staff, and mace are intact.”
The MCA argued that Bunge Mashinani was operating illegally as Mr Okero awaits the hearing of his case scheduled for April 2.
However, the MCAs said they were willing to resolve the issues and asked the Senate to conduct a fact-finding mission to find a solution before resorting to dissolution.
“These things can be sorted. They just wanted to assume they were ignorant of the law. Give us time if he (the governor) does not respond; it is chaotic I'm telling you. We are ready for it to be dissolved. Before we reach there, give the governor time to put his house in order.”
The Senate has resolved to conduct a special inquiry into the governance of Nyamira County, guided by the Controller of Budget (CoB) reports, a compliance inquiry, as well as a special inquiry by the Auditor-General.
“There seems to be a complete breakdown of governance institutions in Nyamira,” said Mr Kajwang.
“We cannot force you to love each other but we can make you work. We have to use all means, formal and informal, to enable institutions to work so that Nyamira people enjoy devolution like the rest.”
