Nyamira Governor Amos Nyaribo has survived a second impeachment at the county assembly after Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) failed to attain the voting threshold of two thirds to impeach him.
Twenty-two MCAs voted for governor Nyaribo’s impeachment while 12 voted no to the motion. The house needed 23 votes for the impeachment motion to sail through. Nyaribo missed the ouster from office by just one vote out of the 34 votes cast.
The mover of the governor’s impeachment motion at the county assembly, Evans Matunda, nominated MCA from the wiper party, claimed that the governor has grossly violated the constitution and other laws, denying students their rights to education, violation of the Nyamira County Persons with Disability act, 2023 by failing to constitute the Nyamira County Persons with Disability Board, failing to contain the county wage bill within the legal threshold under the public finance management Act amongst other accusations.
The Governor’s Nyaribo legal team led by Julius Anyoka, with his colleague Jacob Ngwele in response to the outcome after voting congratulated MCAs who stood their ground against all odds and intimidation to defend the constitution and trounce the malicious motion of impeachment.
“The assembly displayed overtones of vendetta and malice and the grounds of the impeachment motion totally failed to meet the constitution threshold to remove the governor from office.
“I appeal to the MCAs to respect the constitution, in particular Article 1 of the constitution of Kenya which states that ‘All sovereign power belongs to the people of kenya and shall be exercised only in accordance with the constitution’. Impeachment therefore is not a proper way to oversight the governor and settle differences, instead it denies electorates the opportunity to directly access services and other development initiatives meant to benefit them.
Advocate Jacob Ngwele argued that he has encountered one of the weakest impeachment motions in the history of Kenya. This impeachment motion lacked substantive and convincing evidence for it to succeed. He said that most issues raised were sheer propaganda and unsubstantiated rumors.
The county assembly legislatures will now have to work on a cordial working relationship for the best interest of the residents of Nyamira so that the county can spur its development agenda.
By Deborah Bochere
