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Citizen Weekly

Sunday 14 December 2014

WILL KABOGO SURVIVE WELL ORCHESTRATED OUSTER PLOT

Kiambu governor William Kabogo might not be out of the woods yet despite a court order barring the Kiambu MCAs from introducing an impeachment motion against him. Kabogo is being accused of gross misconduct and abuse of office and failing to heed summonses from the senate to appear before it to explain the county government’s expenditure.
It has now emerged that some MCAs have again retreated to the drawing board to scheme afresh on a plan B to nail Kabogo. Sources say some MCAs are of the view that their only option is to go back to court to challenge a ruling which barred them from discussing the censure motion. Limuru Central rep Joseph Murungami has moved to High Court accusing the speaker of being biased in his rejection of the motion he had put on the floor.
Murungami met Kiambu senator Wamatangi for hours with three lawyers before filing the suit. Their plan B according one of the MCAs who did not wish to be named is to eject Kabogo through the courts and other constitutional avenues should their plan to oust him through the assembly come a cropper.
Last week, the MCAs were ready to discuss the impeachment motion but speaker Gathii Irungu ruled that the motion could not proceed because it had not attained the required threshold after five members claimed their signatures supporting the governor’s ouster had been forged.
It is said MCAs friendly to Kabogo have been playing hide and seek with their counterparts who have been pushing for Kabogo’s ouster by forcing technicalities such as lack of quorum.
According to sources, 30 MCAs had signed for the motion but five withdrew, which means the motion could not be tabled for debate because 29 are required to support it. The team that is pushing for impeachment is led by Murungami and Ngewa rep Karungo Thangwa.
The pro-Kabogo camp though the minority, are also said to be burning the mid-night oil and are not taking anything for granted on how to save Kabogo. Their game plan is to frustrate the  assembly by denying it the quorum and the minimum threshold for transacting business of the house that could see development projects approved. 
The anti-Kabogo camp is also known to have vowed to push for his removal despite allegations that they have been getting unfair rulings in the assembly aimed at curtailing and frustrating their efforts. They now plan to have the ruling interpreted in a constitutional court and should the ruling be found unlawful, they will go on and impeach the speaker.
The anti-Kabogo team now claims that Kabogo has dished money to scuttle the motion. One MCA was heard shouting that “money has changed hands” to ensure their plan failed.
But majority leader Patrick Chege denied claims that the speaker and other members had been compromised to block the motion, saying it lacked the required threshold to get to the floor. He is also accused of being pro-Kabogo, a claim he has denied.
The impeachment comes on the heels of a 14-day notice the MCAs gave Kabogo to relocate the county headquarters from Thika back to Kiambu town which is the official gazetted county headquarters.
Some county projects according to the MCAs are also being probed by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. However, the Kiambu assembly majority leader Chege Wanjiru has dismissed the claims, accusing her colleagues of playing politics with the county headquarter issue.
Apart from the MCAs, some Kiambu MPs have also been working on a plot to impeach Kabogo. Led by Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa, some lawmakers are unhappy with Kabogo’s leadership style. Other anti-Kabogo MPs are Mburu Kahangara (Lari), Kigo Njenga (Gatundu North) and Alice Ng’ang’a (Thika Town).
The MPs claim that Kabogo has not initiated any development projects in the county despite receiving billions of shillings from the national government.

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