Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu on Tuesday, January 9, wrote to the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission EACC condemning the manner in which the Kiambu county assembly conducted his impeachment process on December 19, 2019.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, Kiambu county CEC Sports and close ally to Waititu Karungo Thang’wa indicated that the governor took the step after reading malice in how the process was conducted.
“This was just an illegal plot to oust the governor. Everything points out to numerous illegalities that the governor demands an explanation.”
“It is crystal clear that there were instances of lack of general political ethics and integrity that the EACC should look into,” remarked Karungo.
In the letter written to the EACC through lawyer Ndegwa Njiru, the governor called on the ethics body to review the events of the day.
“From the commencement, the assembly did not have the requisite statutory quorum at any particular time for reason that the number of members of the assembly is 92, thus the statutory quorum required under Section 33(2) of the County Governments Act to pass such a motion is 62 members,” read the letter.
The lawyer also indicated that the County Assembly Speaker Stephen Ndichu did not read the correct numbers in his final announcement.
“The members in attendance were 57, with 35 MCAs absent whereas 30 MCAs were at Lake Bogoria Lodge, 3 were in Dubai on official duties and 2 MCAs were absent.”
“Notably, the house could not have attained the 63 votes for a yes vote. Suffice to note that none of the 30 MCAs would have been available to vote at 1430 hrs noting that a journey from Lake Baringo Lodge to Kiambu would ordinarily take a minimum of 4 hours,” added the letter.
Further, Waititu complained of non-adherence from the county assembly clerk Francis Ndirangu to release necessary information for the proceedings of the impeachment process.
The request to the clerk was sent by Witeithie MCA Julius Taki asking for among others copies of the divisional list, results of roll call vote taken during the sitting, list of people who attended the plenary and the hansard records.
The motion was to impeach Waititu was tabled by Ndenderu MCA Solomon Kinuthia who accused the governor of engaging in corrupt dealings, abuse of office and gross misconduct.
In the tabled motion, Waititu was accused of contravening the public procurement rules and conflict of interest with allegations that county tenders were awarded to companies owned by Waititu or his close relatives.
The governor was also accused of going against the county hiring procedures in hiring of casual workers without the involvement of the County Service Board.
