Wajir Governor Mohammed Abdi Mahamud has been impeached by the Senate Assembly.
25 senators voted for the impeachment motion, 2 voted against it and 4 abstained.
A minimum of 24 senators were required to vote for the impeachment for it to sail through.
Most of the senators who contributed to the motion agreed with the findings of the committee and said it is time to restore sanity at the county governments.
” A good governor, somebody who cares about the interests of the people that voted him into office, should be diligent enough to establish such a forum. Unless the governor before us doesn’t understand what is the importance of a county budget economic forum,” Senator Aaron Cheruiyot said.
Senator Kipchumba Murkomen in his submission said impeachment processes must be treated with the seriousness they deserve given that they are serious matters.
“When such processes of impeachment are brought before us we must take time to look at as a Senate and ask ourselves, what was expected of Governor Mohamud in achieving Article 43 of the Constitution,” he said.
Nyamira Senator Okong’o Omogeni, who was the chair of the 11-member special committee that probed the Governor, moved the impeachment motion.
His ouster comes hours after the 11-member Senate committee that probed the impeachment of the Wajir Governor tabled a report of its trial held last week.
An 11-member committee upheld one charge that formed the basis of his impeachment.
“Charge 1 on gross violation of the Constitution of Kenya,2010, the County Government Act, 2012, the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 and the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 has been substantiated,” reads the conclusion part of the 11-member committee report.
The 11-member committee, however, found that abuse of office and gross misconduct charges were not substantiated.
Other members of the committee are Susan Kihika (Vice-Chair), Johnson Sakaja, Mwangi Githiomi, Christine Zawadi, Mithika Linturi, Hargura Godana, Fred Outa, Agnes Muthama, Petronilla Were and Issa Juma Boy.
In its report to the Senate, the Chair of the committee reported a number of findings.
The charges that the governor was facing were basically two.
In the case before the special committee, the county assembly of Wajir put forward 15 allegations in support of this particular charge of gross violation of the law.
Senator Omogeni told the Senate that of all the 15 allegations in support of the charge, the committee was not able to find any substantiation against 13 allegations and the same were dismissed.
On the allegation of failure to submit an annual report of the implementation status of county policies and plans, the committee arrived at a finding that the governor had not complied with this requirement.
The committee made an observation that not each violation or failure to observe a particular section of a statute should lead to impeachment.
Governor Abdi was first impeached by MCAs on April 27.
