This archive report was first published on 23 June 2020.
June 23, 2020
Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has accused the Kirinyaga County Assembly of going on a fishing expedition in its push to impeach her.
Waiguru, through her lead counsel Paul Nyamodi, told the 11-member special Senate committee probing her impeachment by the MCAs that it is upon the county assembly to prove the allegations it has made against her.
“It is the county assembly that framed the charges and there is no way her responses can be used against her. The governor has no issue to prove. It is the MCAs who should prove their allegations against her,” Mr Nyamodi said.
The hearing started on June 9 after the MCAs impeached Waiguru on account of gross violation of the Constitution, the written law, and abuse of office charges.
Mr Nyamodi was responding to preliminary objections raised by lawyer Ndegwa Njiru, who is representing the county assembly and who had accused the governor of supplying her responses in documents that were not legible.
The county assembly had also requested that the governor be compelled to submit before the committee both her diplomatic and personal passports so that the MCAs can “discern her travels”.
However, in his reply to the objection, Mr Nyamodi wondered what the MCAs relied on to frame their charge if they did not have the documents, saying that the ward reps were on a fishing expedition.
On her part, the governor raised a preliminary objection in which she accuses the county assembly of supplying her with additional evidence to that forwarded to her by the Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka.
The documents, which Mr Nyamodi described as “unintelligible mass of a document” contain witness statements and evidence. But lawyer Njiru told the committee that the new evidence “improves” the MCAs’ case against the county chief.
