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Citizen Weekly

Sunday 1 March 2015

Mutua war on Kalonzo eats into Machakos county coffers

Attempts by Machakos governor Alfred Mutua to snatch leadership mantle of Kamba politics from Kalonzo Musyoka have intensified with calls on Kalonzo by a section of leaders in the region allied to Jubilee to quit politics.
Although the governor was elected on a Wiper ticket, he has been leaning towards Jubilee and has hosted Uhuru Kenyatta twice in the county. Insiders at the governor’s however say that Mutua is also operating on an environment of fear after audit queries were raised on Machakos county affairs. This according, to the insider has forced the governor to gravitate towards the government in fear of being arraigned in court.
Mutua and his aides have allegedly in the short period he has been in power ammassed wealth that was unimaginable to them barely two years ago and have attracted the attention of Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission officers who are now monitoring their accounts but who are yet to act with suspicion that Mutua has compromised a top EACC boss. The overnight superrich aides include Mutua’s personal assistant Mwengi Mutuse, chief officer in charge of municipalities Nimrod Mbai and county secretary Francis Mwaka who are all from outside Machakos. Mutua himself is from Makueni.
Incidentally, Mutua relied on Wiper party to upstage CCU’s Wavinya Ndeti and locals unhappy with Mutua blame Kalonzo for imposing on them a man who according to them is not fit to even manage his own home with his wife having run away to Australia with their children after Mutua on being elected governor went for a new catch abandoning the woman with whom they suffered when he had a malnourished bank account just the other day.
Apart from a bunch of MPs and MCAs who accompany Mutua to functions, it is said, much of those in attendance are hired hecklers ferried in buses and paid to cheer the leaders castigating Kalonzo and Machakos senator Johnson Muthama. Muthama is giving the governor hard time and has vowed to spearhead his impeachment. On Muthama’s side and by extension Kalonzo are 20 MCAs now rebelling  against Mutua, MP Robert Mbui, Katatha Kyengo, Stephen  Mule and Francis Mwangangi. In Kitui county, Kalonzo  is enjoying the support of  Governor Julius Malombe, Senator David Musila, MPs Makali Mulu Francis Nyenze Richard  Kitungi and Joe Mutambu and women rep Nyiva Mwendwa. Only John Munuve and Rachael Nyamai are leaning  towards Mutua.
In Makueni county Kalonzo has Governor Kivutha Kibwana, Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jnr, women rep Rose Museo, MPs Dan Maanzo, Jessica Mbalu, Kisoi Munyao while Regina Ndambuki and Katemi Makenga are supporting Mutua. Ndambuki hardly makes contribution in parliament and Kilome people are said to be regretting their choice although like with Mutua, they blame Kalonzo for ramming Regina down their throats.
In Machakos county, Mutua has the support of Victor Munyaka,Vincent Musyoka, Patrick Makau and Benson Mbai. It is alleged the MPs and MCAs are paid Sh200,000 after every rally which is why Makenga, Regina, Nyamai and Munuve from Makueni and Kitui disrupt all their programmes to be with Mutua instead of with their governors or in their constituencies. The move by Makueni and Kitui MPs and MCAs to accompany Mutua  has not gone down well with Machakos residents who say their money is going out of their county and have threatened to take unspecified measures on these leaders who come to Machakos to kudoea. In these MPs’ own constituencies, residents are unhappy with the tourist MPs and reps for transforming themselves into Mutua’s political houseboys and housemaids. The cash to buy the MPs’ presence according to sources comes from Machakos county government and that is why the county coffers are running dry as development in Machakos becomes as scarce as water in Sahara.
But while these outsider MPs quote their price which comes in wads of notes after the meetings and never before or during, where amounts depend on one’s pleasant praises on Mutua and severe attacks on Kalonzo, Machakos county MPs are doing mouth-watering business with the county government. Mwala MP Musyoka known as kawaya due to his lean figure was for instance allegedly awarded a tender to install car track services in the county vehicles and his company was paid  Sh24 million. Munyaka on the other hand allegedly supplied tens of thousands of day-old chicks which the governor gave out to youth and women but which died on the same night as locals had not been educated on their rearing.
Mbai’s company supplied poles which he cut in Meru forests for street lighting and CCTV cameras in the county in a tender that was considered inflated. The poles are crooked cutting a grotesque image that elicits laughter and a shake of the head depending on the beholder and what they know or do not know on matters street lighting and camera surveillance. If there was any jua kali work purporting to be digital, it is in Machakos where locals must be the most unenlightened in the world to go with such manifest hogwash.
Another governor’s attack dog Kalembe, made a whopping Sh10 million in a deal where the governor acquired a piece of land along Kyumbi-Machakos town road. Those in the know say that Kalembe had used money he was given by Muthama and Raila Odinga for the Kibwezi by-election campaign to buy the land which he later sold to Mutua.  It is said that to hold the three MPs at ransom, Mutua awards them tenders and threatens not to pay them if they do not lick his boots.

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