Meru MCAs' fresh bid to impeach governor Kawira suffers setback

The third attempt by Meru MCAs to kick out Governor Kawira Mwangaza has suffered a setback after a woman, said to have been hired irregularly by the county, threatened to sue them for including her in the impeachment motion.

Nominated MCA Zipporah Kinya, of UDA, tabled the impeachment motion notice on Wednesday, with public participation forums set to start Monday morning and end at 1 pm.

Among the grounds Kinya has cited for Kawira's impeachment is the alleged appointment of Irah Nkuubi Kanana as the county attorney.

Kinya says the governor irregularly and illegally appointed Ms Kanana as the county attorney without the vetting and approval of the assembly.

But in an unexpected twist, Kanana has denied she was ever employed as the county attorney and now wants her name expunged from the impeachment motion, failure to which she will sue, for defamation.

Through Sitati M Nasambu and Company Advocates, Kanana wants the withdrawal of what she termed unfounded allegations in the proposed impeachment of Mwangaza.

A letter from the law firm to the assembly reads in part; "With regards to the proposed impeachment motion tabled by Hon Zipporah Kinya on July 17, the member has made various allegations concerning our client which are false and deceptive without any basis and which have amounted to gross and blatant misrepresentation of the facts and deliberately meant to malign our client”.

Kinya also accused Mwangaza of illegally revoking the appointment of Virginia Kawira Miriti as Secretary/CEO of Meru County Public Service Board which she said amounted to usurpation of the assembly powers.