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Citizen Weekly

Sunday, 14 December 2014

SIGNATURE DRIVE TO FORCE GOVERNOR MUTUA OUT

There is an orchestrated move that has reached its crescendo aimed at collecting signatures from voters in Machakos county to drive out of office Governor Alfred Mutua. The move has reached its apex and New Year may not be rosy for the roving governor.
Addressing residents during the World Disability Day celebrations held at Mulu Mutisya Grounds in Machakos town, Ndalani MCA Stephen Muthuka hinted that the process is underway.
Muthuka said that the operation has been branded Okoa Machakos county to hound Mutua out of office.
Muthuka said that by January 15, Okoa Machakos team composed of both elected and opinion leaders will have finalised the preparation of books to collect the signatures.
“Books will be distributed to the electorate who will be required to append their signatures in support of the drive to force Governor Mutua out of office,” he said
The MCA said that the move has been prompted by the failure of the county assembly to play its oversight role in fighting rampant corruption and impunity in the county executive under the helm of Mutua.
“We have realised that we cannot rely on our county assembly because many of us have already been compromised and therefore, we want to throw the ball to the voters of Machakos who elected us into office,” he said.
He said that the constitution has bestowed sovereign power on the citizens and it was time for Machakos people to exercise that power and exorcise Machakos out of the evil of corruption perpetrated by Mutua government.
Muthuka accused the county leadership of entrenching mega corruption and impunity in its operations at the expense of the citizens who are the taxpayers.
“The county top brass don’t care about the poor because it has continued to demolish with impunity market stalls for our traders in all major towns in the name of cleaning the towns,” he lamented.
Muthuka accused Mutua of hiding behind Uhuru Kenyatta’s name to perpetrate impunity and alleged corrupt deals in the county. He criticised the president’s recent visit in the county saying that it lacked meaningful development agenda as other leaders were not involved in its preparation.
“We are calling on the president whom we respect so much not to be used by anybody who wants to secure his way out of his own problems,” he said.
Muthuka said that top county officers in Machakos have continued to enrich themselves using public coffers to invest outside the county to the detriment of locals.
He said that as leaders, they had decided not to sit and wait as public money was being embezzled.
According to the constitution of Kenya, a county governor may be removed from office following gross violation of the constitution or any other law.
Where there are serious reasons to believe that a county governor has committed a crime under national or international law through abuse of office or gross misconduct, then the constitution must take its course or where physical or mental incapacity to perform the functions of office of county governor is cited.
In this process, parliament shall enact legislation providing for the procedure of removal of a county governor on any of the grounds specified in clause (1), the law states.

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