Kirinyaga County headquarters, Kutus town, on Thursday morning came to a standstill as hundreds of locals took to the streets in support of Governor Anne Waiguru’s impeachment by ward representatives.
The demonstrators, who seemed to have taken advantage of the busy market day in Kutus, said that they want the Senate to uphold the impeachment of Governor Waiguru.
Traders at the busy Kutus market temporarily abandoned their work to join in the demonstration as work continue unhindered because the presence of the nearly 700 demonstrators.
During the demo, some locals rode on boda boda motorcycles while others walked on foot carrying placards and twigs, also urging President Uhuru Kenyatta to demonstrate with actions that he is against corruption.
The demonstrators said they want President Kenyatta, as the Jubilee Party leader, to whip senators to back the impeachment of his former Devolution CS who is now the Kirinyaga County chief.
“We know our President has declared total war on corrupt government officers and governors in the country. He should come out and support Kirinyaga residents the same way he did to the people of Kiambu,” shouted some of the demonstrators who were recalling the impeachment of Governor Ferdinand Waititu earlier this year.
Speaking to the press, a local resident Abubakal Omar, pleaded with President Kenyatta not to allow any political horse-trading to save the governor.
He added: “Senate should rise to the occasion and let justice be seen to be done. We are aware that some senators want to get rid of the motion as soon as it is table on the Senate floor.”
Another resident, Joyce Wakuthii, said that the governor should not hide behind her gender as some of her backers claimed following her ouster.
Waiguru’s fate is now in the hands of senators after Kirinyaga MCAs impeached her on Tuesday, June 9.
Twenty-three MCAs out of 33 ward representatives voted to eject her from office over alleged undermining the authority of the assembly and gross violation of the Constitution.
The motion to impeach her was moved by Mutira MCA Kinyua Wangui.
The impeachment was a culmination of political machinations and chess-like moves with the ward representatives, whom she accused of being only stooges of a master pulling the strings behind the curtain.
During the vote, that was marred by chaos and ejection of two MCAs, four ward reps abstained while six were absent from the proceedings.
With the Senate having received the assembly’s impeachment resolution, it will form a special committee or sit as a committee of the whole House to determine whether the claims in the impeachment are substantiated.
But the governor is not sitting pretty waiting for the Senate proceedings. She moved to the court to stop the impeachment proceedings arguing that the MCAs acted in contempt of court orders.
Waiguru said the High Court had temporarily stopped the MCAs from debating the motion because of the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic.
