Update Thursday, March 11: Vihiga County MCAs have withdrawn a plan to impeach Governor Wilber Ottichilo. The MCAs have instead opted to resolve their grievances through a process of mediation.
The decision followed a series of talks between those pushing for the impeachment motion with elders and religious leaders in the county.
The MCAs had accused him of abuse of office, imprudent use of public funds, massive retrenchment of county staff as well as irregular hiring of workers.
Vihiga County Governor Wilber Ottichilo is a troubled man as plans by members of the county assembly to impeach him on various grounds gather momentum. The ODM Governor has started making frantic efforts to avert the motion of impeachment which is set to be tabled before mid this year.
It has emerged that at least 23 out of 38 MCAs have appended their signatures that would set the stage for his impeachment, this is according to the document which was shared by the Standard on February 26, 2020.
However, the Governor, who is on the know about the plan was quick to rubbish the claims insisting that he has done a lot since August 2017 when he set foot in the County Office. He urged them to work together to ensure county residents get the services they deserve.
“They say they want to send me home. We need to work together,” Dr. Ottichilo Wednesday said
It is the first time Vihiga County disgruntled MCAs have mooted the idea of kicking him out of office on grounds of irregular procurement, abuse of office, gross misconduct and failure to implement the approved budget.
The legislators are also accusing the governor of irregular hiring, massive sacking of county staff and gross violation of the Constitution among other issues.
The governor was quick to name those spearheading the impeachment process stating that a section of county ward representatives starting with the county Majority Leader Moses Opole were behind his tribulations.
"Majority Leader Moses Opole is the one going round in funerals “claiming I am not working," added Governor Wilber Ottichilo On Wednesday 26, 2020.
County Majority Whip Victor Ijaika confirmed that the impeachment plan was actually on and it was intended to give the county assembly room to address the major problems the county has been facing.
A stalemate in the county has been on the contentious Sh450 million supplementary budget that had been set aside to pay pending bills but this had not been done with the Governor shifting blame to the National Treasury and the Controller of Budget.
The MCA's on Friday, February 21, 2020, held an informal meeting to deliberate on the next steps to take as this impeachment process takes center stage.
