Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu has criticized the County Assembly of Kitui for what she says is persistent schemes to derail development in the county.
Addressing the press Friday in Kitui, Governor Ngilu accused members of the majority wing in the assembly of playing politics with profound matters affecting the wellbeing of the county residents.
This comes a day after the County Assembly rejected the nominees for the County Public Service Board even after they had passed interviews and had all necessary credentials for the same.
“Today is a sad day –The County Assembly passed the Mwingi Municipality Charter but shot down the list of board nominees, the said municipality cannot work without members who must be interviewed by the same board,” she said.
The Governor asked the Assembly to discharge their constitutional mandate without frustrating processes enshrined in the law.
“It hurts the common mwananchi when politicians settle political scores by delaying key procedures,” she added.
Governor Ngilu noted that the Assembly had previously rejected among others a supplementary budget, a yearly budget and two nominees for Chief Officer Positions adding the ward representatives were out to blackmail the Executive and derail development in the county.
She said the process had been delayed since February and asked the MCAs to shun party politics and serve the electorate.
Governor Charity accused Speaker George Ndotto of being a barrier in matters pertaining to county progress.
The Governor said the Speaker had constantly failed to act with honesty in key issues affecting the county, citing the latest incident and accusing him of delaying the establishment of a new County Public Service Board.
The Governor claimed Speaker Ndotto had vetoed the establishment of a new board out of selfish interests to derail the process and called on him to focus on the county agenda and stop advancing selfish political interests.
Governor Ngilu said that while it was not wrong to be ambitious, the ambitions of politicians should not override the county development agenda.
“I have beaten him continually in political contests before, it would be wrong if he chooses to settle scores with county matters,” Ngilu said.
The Governor said a time comes when the good of the county should supersede an individual’s ego and added it was sad Speaker Ndotto continues to abuse his influence at the Assembly’s helm of leadership.
However, in a swift rejoinder, Ndotto exonerated himself from blame saying the legislators exercised their democratic right to reject the nominees.
“Three of the nominees were qualified whereas the remaining three did not meet the integrity threshold as enshrined in the constitution. The list was rejected in totality on the floor of the house,” said Ndotto.
By Yobesh Onwong’a
