Members of the Meru County Assembly presented video evidence of the alleged roadside appointments of firefighters by the besieged Governor Kawira Mwangaza in her impeachment hearing on Tuesday, December 27.
In the video presented by one of the witnesses, the county chief was captured in an excerpt from a vernacular TV station purporting to recruit officials to manage and handle newly acquired fire engines in the county.
The appointments took place during a public rally in Timau, Meru county, with the governor leading locals in either approving or rejecting candidates who offered themselves for the opportunities.
Mwangaza used acclamation from the public to determine the eligibility of the candidates while standing on a podium during the public rally.
For the lucky ones, the public replied with a resounding nod while the unlucky ones faced the rejection of the crowd.
However, the witness representing the Assembly cast doubts on the effectiveness of the criteria used arguing that the governor appeared to be rejecting some candidates regardless of the acclamation from the public.
In addition, the counsel underscored that appointment of such persons was not a mandate under the jurisdiction of the governor, but rather a function of the County Public Service Board.
Also among the reservations raised was that the job of fire brigades requires specialized training and skills which was not the case in the alleged roadside appointments.
Further, the counsel depicted that Mwangaza had disregarded the law by bypassing the processes of vetting and advertising vacancies for the positions.
“It is a specialized job that requires special training from either the National Youth Service or any other relevant body that trains firefighters,” the witness stated before the committee.
"She did the advertisement and recruitment and hired them on-site," he added.
Mwangaza's lawyer Elias Mutuma had earlier in the session dismissed the allegations levelled against her, terming them as witchhunt and falsehoods.
"The governor of Meru has been a victim of the danger of one story and outright false narrative.
Her successes, her leadership, her amenable character, and her passion to uplift the lives of the people of Meru have been hashed for political expediency," the lawyers noted in the submissions.
The impeachment hearing before the Senate Committee was a culmination of a long period of push and pull between the governor and county legislators.
The governor was accused of- among other charges- nepotism, illegal appointments, and vilification of other elected leaders in the county.
