Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza’s fate to be decided in plenary
The fate of Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza will be decided by the Senate through plenary.
This follows a defeat of a motion tabled to have her fate decided by an 11-member committee.
"The impeachment motion against Kawira Mwangaza, Governor of Meru County, brought to the Senate by the County Assembly of Meru will be heard and determined by way of a Plenary," ruled Senate Speaker Amason Kingi.
The impeachment motion will be heard and determined within 10 days.
Mwangaza faces several charges including misappropriation and misuse of county resources, nepotism and related unethical practices, bullying, vilification and demeaning other leaders.
According to the Meru MCAs who voted to impeach her for the second time, the governor embezzled County funds through her relatives, withdrew County funds through false claims of payment for supplies and services rendered by her relatives, despite being ineligible to tender for or supply goods to the County Government.
She is also accused of paying full salaries and benefits for over a year to four high-ranking County officials, despite their not rendering any services to the County.
The MCAs also accuse Mwangaza of diverting county resources, including funds and motor vehicles, to support her private charity initiative dubbed Okolea, despite previous promises to keep County operations and Okolea operations separate.
Nepotism allegations against Mwangaza
The MCAs claim that Mwangaza fraudulently represented unqualified relatives as a "technical team" for medical equipment inspection in China, employed one Edwin Mutuma Murangiri, a nephew to her husband, in a key County position and designated her brother-in-law, Nephat Kinyua, as a Director of External Linkages without transparent and competitive recruitment.
She is also accused of assigning diplomatic duties with engagements with foreign diplomats and dignitaries to unqualified relatives.
Mwangaza also faces charges of excluding the Deputy Governor from County Executive Committee meetings and other official functions and posting demeaning messages about the Deputy Governor in WhatsApp groups known as "3rd Government 012" and "County Admin Services".
She also allegedly encouraged and condoned insubordination through insulting and demeaning public utterances by subordinate staff against the Deputy Governor and other elected leaders.
She is also accused of irregularly and fraudulently hounding the Deputy Governor's staff out of office by purporting to accept their non-existent resignations.
Mwangaza is also accused of arbitrarily reducing, suspending and withdrawing budgetary facilitation for legitimate operations of the Deputy Governor's office.
