Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru on Wednesday, June 24, used six points in her closing arguments during her impeachment hearing at the senate.
Waiguru submitted that the Senate committee had been treated to innuendos and trivialities that did not meet the threshold of gross violation of the Constitution hence meriting an impeachment.
For starters, the governor stated that out of the Ksh10 million which was claimed to have been sent to her account Ksh4.6 million was fictitious.
Secondly, Waiguru stated that in two of the trips that she is claimed to have invoiced and did not travel, the majority leader was present in the trips and was even photographed as shown in her travel file submissions.
Thirdly, Waiguru noted that a witness claiming that health facilities in Kirinyaga County were infested by snakes was a contradiction to the national body, the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board and others who gave the hospital a clean bill of health.
"She cited lack of autoclave machines and incinerators which the members of the county assembly so graciously allocated budget in May last year and these were purchased and delivered," Waiguru told the committee.
Fourth, the governor said that the county assembly had failed to demonstrate to the committee how a public participation process on the impeachment was conducted at a time when there was a court order putting an injunction on the process due to Covid-19 restrictions.
"The process, therefore, excluded the voice of a majority of Kirinyaga residents yet the matter at hand impacts on them. The public participation question puts to doubt the validity of the whole impeachment process," she lamented.
Additionally, Waiguru stated that the county assembly had failed to prove that any of the tenders mentioned in the impeachment motion were irregularly awarded or that the county incurred any financial losses as result of the said awards.
The county boss highlighted that the assembly failed to interrogate the public procurement procedures
which, she argued, could have informed them that it was within provisions of the law to purchase the governor’s vehicle from the manufacturer that supplied government vehicles under a framework contract.
Waiguru called upon the committee to thoroughly scrutinise the evidence submitted and disregard any unsubstantiated claims.
"The precedence that this committee will set will be a point of reference in future impeachment processes and it is therefore expected that the decisions taken by this committee will not come back to haunt this house," she concluded.
