The Senate committee considering the removal of Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza has crystallised the 62 allegations facing her into six salient issues it will decide on before tabling its report in a Special Sitting this afternoon.
For Ms Mwangaza, today is D-Day as the 11-member Special Committee chaired by Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale makes a decision on the six issues that could make or break the county chief’s nascent political career.
The Dr Khalwale-led team is expected to table its report after two days of hearings from both parties that went on up to 2.30 am on Thursday, as both legal teams engaged in a last-minute sprint to put their case before the senators.
If the committee finds all of the claims unsubstantiated, that will be the end of the matter.
While the team will still have to report to the House on the same, senators are barred from taking any other decision on the matter.
However, if the committee finds proof of the charges — even on just one of the 62 allegations or any of the six the committee has broken them into — the Senate will proceed to vote on the impeachment charges.
A source in the committee told the Nation that among the issues given more weight by the senators include the employment of Murega Baichu, the governor’s husband, as hustler ambassador in Meru, the roadside appointment of staff to work in the Okolea Programme, and the roadside award of a tender to a contractor to build a perimeter wall in a market in Nkubu.
Others are violations of the PFM Act when she ordered Meru Referral Hospital to spend money at source, the appointment of her husband as Meru Youth Patron, a public office with no legal instruments, and whether or not Mr Baichu was drawing salaries from the public coffers.
The role of her husband in the public affairs of the county and open involvement in politics has rubbed many in the county the wrong way. It could be the main reason why the impeachment was carried out, the senators had said in the two-day marathon session.
In one clip he reveals that the Agriculture CS and county senator had demanded a share of the county government.
He is also captured saying that Tigania East MP Mpuru Aburi had brought a Sh10 million pending bill for his TV station, which he demanded to be paid in exchange for political support.
Ms Mwangaza has also been accused of ignoring established structures in the county government and instead creating her own parallel structures.
Her chief of staff Harrison Gatobu, who testified in her support, was accused of upstaging the county secretary, who is recognised by law as the executor of most of the county’s decisions.
In a country where religion is revered, the governor’s war with the church might also complicate issues for her.
MCAs have accused her of vilifying the Catholic Church, by allegedly calling them part of the “corrupt cartel” in the county.
Father Elias Kinoti was brought in by MCAs to testify against her to support the idea that she has a poor working relationship with the Church. When asked whether he would support reconciliation efforts, the priest was categorical that he wouldn’t support any such move. “This is not a place for forgiveness. The Constitution does not provide for forgiveness in such a matter,” he said.
During the two-day hearings, senators questioned the employment of fire fighters to work in a private Okolea Fire Fighting Programme, a function that should ordinarily be done by the county government.
Nominated Senator Peris Tobiko said the problem might not be the leaders in the region, but either the governor or the people around her.
“I hope it will not be your downfall. Your tongue has given a voice to naysayers of women empowerment and it appears you seem not to know what it has cost Kenyan women to create their own space,” Ms Tobiko said.
Kiambu Senator Karungo wa Thang’wa sought to know from Mr Gatobu why the governor was not getting along with not only the 68 MCAs, but also all the elected MPs in the region.
His Uasin Gishu counterpart Jackson Mandago pointed out that Mr Gatobu might be using his position as chief of staff and proximity to the governor to settle political scores with Abogeta ward MCA Denis Kiogora, who sponsored the impeachment motion.
Mr Gatobu, the sole witness called by the governor during the hearings, had run for the Abogeta seat but lost in the primaries.
In their final submission, lawyers representing the county assembly told senators to send the governor home in order to resolve the political crisis in the county.
But in rebuttal, the governor’s lawyers described the impeachment motion as hot air, adding that none of the allegations had been proven to warrant her removal.
