Kawira Mwangaza Accused Of 7 Violations In New Impeachment Motion

Meru Members of the County Assembly (MCA) have initiated another impeachment motion against Governor Kawira Mwangaza.

In a motion tabled at the County Assembly, the county legislators cited seven violations committed by Mwangaza as grounds for another attempt at impeaching her from the top county seat.

Majority Leader Evans Mawira Kaaria tabled the first notice of motion on Tuesday, October 17. The assembly, which has a total of 69 MCAs, will consider the 25 pages that outline the grounds against the governor and the evidence to impeach her.

Viral Tea takes a look at seven violations which the MCAs will utilise as main grounds on which the Assembly intends to impeach Mwangaza from office again:

Misappropriation and misuse of county resources

The MCAs accuse Mwangaza of withdrawing county funds under the guise of paying for various supplies by the governor’s relatives, who are not eligible to bid for contracts with the Meru County government.

They further claimed that the county has been paying “full salaries and benefits” to several CEOs for more than a year, knowing that these officials have not rendered any services to the county.

“Diversion and misuse of county resources including funds and vehicles to run the governor's charity deemed Okolea despite promising the senate to refrain from conflicting official county officials and Okolea operations,” the Assembly Majority leader Evans Mawira said.

Nepotism 

The governor is also accused of allegedly appointing Edwin Mutuma Murangiri, her husband’s nephew, as CEO of Meru Youth Service (MYS) and Acting Chief Officer of the Ministry of Finance.

The MCAs also alleged that Nephat Kinyua, who is Mwangaza’s brother-in-law, was appointed as Director of External Linkage without a transparent and competitive recruitment process.

Bullying, vilification and demeaning other leaders

In Kaaria’s submission, he cited instances where the governor was heard and seen making demeaning public remarks against other elected leaders and falsely accusing them of cartelism at a presidential thanksgiving service held in Laare, despite the fact that this issue had been raised in previous impeachment proceedings.

Illegal appointments and usurpation of statutory powers

The MCAs alleged that she had disregarded the criteria for the establishment of offices within the County Public Service by recruiting traffic marshals without the involvement of the County Public Service Board.

In addition, they claimed she employed more than 100 personal staff in the Governor’s office and irregularly designated and paid various cleaners as senior support staff.

Contempt of Court

Kawira is also accused of stubbornness and refusal to obey lawful court orders, with the MCAs claiming that the governor has grossly violated the constitution and the law.

Illegal naming a public road after her husband

The MCAs accuse the governor of violating sections 7 and 11 (1) (c) of the Meru County Honours and Awards Act, 2018 by naming a public road, Kibachia-Kilunga Mulathankali, after her husband, Baichu Murega, without following the applicable statutory procedures.

Contempt of the Assembly

Kawira Mwangaza was also accused of refusing to appear before the Assembly’s Sectoral Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Cohesion to answer questions on the matters raised in the preceding.

The MCAs also claim that she instructed her Chief of Staff to write a contemptuous letter to the Assembly in response to the summons.

Following the notice of the motion at Tuesday's Assembly, the MCAs will wait for seven days to pave the way for public participation, after which the mover of the motion will table the motion for debate, at which the governor can choose to appear or not.

If the impeachment motion receives a third of the support of all MCAs in the Assembly, the motion has passed the first stage. 

The next stage is the Senate, which has a maximum of 10 days to decide its fate. However, the Governor can decide to go to court if she is not satisfied with the decisions.

On December 30, 2022, the Senate dismissed a decision by Meru MCAs to kick her out of office after Senator Boni Khalwale's led committee tabled a report on the floor of the house.

The Senate resolved to form an 11-member committee to investigate Governor Mwangaza following her impeachment by the Meru County Assembly on December 14, 2022.

Mwangaza on Friday last week sought the help of the Senate in resolving the dispute with MCAs and other leaders, imploring Speaker Amason Kingi to direct that the Standing Committee on Devolution take charge of their peace talks.

She claimed that all elected leaders in the county are against her, including her Deputy governor Mutuma M'ithinkia.