KARUA FAULTS SENATORS ON IMPEACHMENTS

Kisumu, Kenya: Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua has accused senators of setting a very low threshold for impeachment of governors. Ms Karua also took the senators to task and challenged them to be accountable on how they exercise powers bestowed on them. Addressing delegates attending the second devolution conference in Kisumu yesterday, Karua termed the grounds on which senators attempted to impeach Embu Governor Martin Wambora, and which now serve as the threshold removal of governors from office, as wanting. She argued that by virtue of the fact that Mr Wambora’s impeachment was the first, the threshold should have been raised high to avoid a situation where the governors are targeted on flimsy grounds. She called for a re-look at the impeachment threshold. “That first impeachment set a very low threshold and I do not think such should be the lower limits set for removal of a person who is democratically elected,” said the former Gichugu MP. Karua was the key speaker during a plenary session discussing democracy and accountability, where she shared the platform with Auditor General Edward Ouko, Senate Committee on Public Accounts and Investment chairman, Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale and one Vincent Okong’o from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC). See also: Auditor protests poor funding of his office Karua said elected leaders, including Parliamentarians must be accountable, especially on how they use the powers given to them. “Accountability is not just about money as it has been made to appear. While the senators are asking governors to be accountable for the resources given to them, they must also be accountable in the manner in which they exercise their powers,” she said. level playing ground The Narc Kenya leader also took issue with the senators' stand that governors must be held responsible for the economic crimes committed by officers in their administration, saying that amounted to double standards "At the national government, other officers such as the Cabinet secretaries and their principal secretaries who are the accounting officers, are held accountable for any mess. It is never the President. If we held the President to account for such ills then we would be having very many impeachments of the President,” she said. She, however, told the governors to be ready to be held to account for the funds and other resources they hold, saying accountability, though irritating, is what helps them perform better.