Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, on Thursday, June 11, insinuated that Jubilee Party Secretary-General Raphael Tuju was engineering a scheme to save embattled Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru from impeachment.
According to the legislator, Tuju was pushing Senate Majority Chief Whip Irungu Kang'ata to form a special committee that would favour the Kirinyaga Governor during her impeachment hearing.
"Dear Raphael Tuju, please stop piling pressure on Irungu Kang'ata to form a favourable committee to save Anne Waiguru.
"The young boy from Mugoiri will crack from the pressure. Precedence was set during Waititu’s case. It's full plenary, not committee. Full Stop," Kuria posted on Facebook.
According to the Impeachment Procedure Bill, 2018, the removal of a Governor from office could involve the formation of a special committee under the directive of the Speaker of the House.
"Within ten days after receiving the resolution from the Speaker of the county assembly under section 14 (8) (b) the Senate may, by resolution, appoint a special committee comprising not more than eleven of its members to investigate the matter," reads an excerpt from the constitution.
"If the special committee is not satisfied that the county assembly has complied with the procedure set out under section 14, the special committee shall not proceed with the matter any further and shall report that finding to
the Senate within three days from the date of its first meeting.
"If the Senate resolves that the county assembly did not comply with the procedure set out under section 14, the Speaker of the Senate shall notify the Speaker of the county assembly of the resolution of the Senate and that the Senate shall not proceed with the impeachment process," it further reads.
The aforementioned Section 14 of the Impeachment Procedure Bill, 2018 directs that Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) intending to move a motion to impeach a governor should submit to the Speaker of the county assembly the motion together with a list of the members of the county assembly who support the motion, in the form prescribed in the Schedule.
On June 10, Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka confirmed that he had received the Kirinyaga governor's impeachment resolution.
"Yes we have received a copy of the proceedings, we have now handed it over to the legal team to start looking at what has been brought just in preparation for persecution," he noted.
Kirinyaga County Assembly Speaker, Anthony Gathumbi had earlier on issued an impeachment motion of the county governor to the Senate Speaker.
"I write to inform you that in it's sitting held on the morning of Tuesday 9 June 2020, the County Assembly of Kirinyaga in a motion supported by 23 members constituting over two-thirds of all members of the County Assembly, resolved to remove Hon. Anne Mumbi Waiguru from the office of the County Governor of Kirinyaga," he detailed in his letter.
The embattled county head had rushed to court to question the legality of her impeachment but was dealt a huge blow on Thursday, June 11, after the courts dismissed her submission.
Justice Weldon Korir declined to overturn the impeachment of the Kirinyaga Governor ruling that the Kirinyaga MCAs didn't violate any court order.
Kirinyaga MCAs detailed various cases of alleged misappropriation of public funds and abuse of office as the basis of their move to oust the governor.
