- Kisii Deputy Governor was impeached based on evidence, there was no politics.
- It is time to change the law to give DGs a clear role.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Impeachment is a legal process and we looked at the issues presented to us by the county assembly. What really made the Senate to make the decision was the matter of bribery.
The bribery allegation was substantiated. Clearly, the deputy governor received a bribe of Sh800,000 and transferred Sh100,000 to the CEO of the company and the evidence was overwhelming.
Bribery was running through all the other allegations, so on the basis of the evidence presented to us we made a decision to impeach him.
The decision was almost unanimous by both sides of the political divide. So, it was not a political decision but it was a decision backed by the overwhelming evidence that was presented to us.
On the issue of relationship between the governors and their deputies, I think what we need to do is to have a law that will define specific roles of a deputy governor because that is where we have a lacuna in law.
The law does not prescribe responsibilities of the deputy governor. We need to have a substantive law that makes it clear that these are going to be the roles of the DGs, so that they don’t operate at the mercy of their bosses.
The whole issue of impeachment must be relooked at. The impeachment process, especially at the county assemblies, we need to relook at the threshold of impeaching a deputy governor or a governor.
Issues to do with the local fights should not be brought before the assembly for determination. Senate is there to protect the family units and family values.
You remember in the case of Meru, aspects of family came in, same as in this case where we also had aspects of family.
It is a trend that has to be managed by enhancing the threshold of impeachment, especially at the assembly because the Senate does not impeach.
Senate only upholds or fails to uphold an impeachment; it is the county assemblies that impeach.
We need to have a high threshold for impeachment, so that governors and their deputies are given space to operate and ensure that MCAs don’t misuse that power of impeachment.
There needs to be a balance and oversight at the county level and secondary oversight at the Senate level. But we should make it difficult to impeach a governor and a deputy governor.
Vihiga senator spoke to the Star