NAIROBI, Kenya Dec 27 – The first witness testifying against Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza at the Senate impeachment hearings has singled out her husband as the biggest problem in the county.
Abogeta County Assembly member Denis Kiogora, who sponsored the impeachment motion, said Mwangaza’s husband Murega Baichu had been interfering with county affairs.
Kiogora said the appointment of Mwangaza’s husband as the county’s Youth Patron and Hustlers’ Ambassador came with impunity.
“The husband of the governor has been meddling with County affairs especially the negative comments that he usually makes against other leaders. He starts the vilification and the governor picks up,” Kiogora said.
Although Mwangaza stated that her husband was not going to benefit financially from County coffers, the Abogeta MCA told Senators that the two positions gave him so much power that he started vilifying other County leaders including the MCAs.
“When you appoint someone in an office with other people and a big budget, you cannot claim he is not being paid. You appointed him to do something it is not just for the sake of it. The governor is the CEO of a County not a comedian,” he said.
The Meru County Assembly was the first to mount defence Tuesday when the impeachment investigations opened.
Kiogora was among four witnesses lined up to testify against Mwangaza who told the Bonny Khalwale-led committee that she will only produce one witness.
Charges read out to the Governor include nepotism, usurpation of constitutional organs and illegal appointments including that of her husband Murega Baichu.
Other charges include incitement, bullying, vilification and misleading campaigns against other leaders.
Speaking while making introductory submissions County Lawyer Muthomi Thiankolu said Kawira is not fit to run the County as she has not only violated over 30 sections of the Constitution but is also at loggerheads with everyone she is expected to work with.
“Would it be fair for someone to argue or conclude that given all these fights with countless people, some of them not even in the County government that there is no fundamental problem with the governor in trial and the problem lies with these other people? She has just too many people she has waged fights with, the MCAs, Meru Senator, Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, and Tigania East MP. Can we fairly say that the problem lies somewhere and not with the governor?” Thiankolu posed.
The County lawyer further pointed out that the evidence they will present before the committee will show that Meru County is in a crisis urging the Senate to uphold Mwangaza’s impeachment.
