Just a day after they agreed to a truce over the budget crisis in Elgeyo Marakwet, Senator Kipchumba Murkomen and Governor Alex Tolgos have clashed again.
The governor accused Murkomen of scheming to have the county assembly impeach him.
He has vowed to fight to the bitter end with the support of residents. He says he is ready to be sacrificed for speaking the truth.
“I am reliably aware that the senator is planning for my impeachment with a view to silencing me after I publicly mentioned to the people that the corruption proceeds of Arror and Kimwarer dams scandal were being used to cause friction in our county,” the governor said in a statement on Monday.
But Murkomen dismissed the governor as a total failure in managing the county.
“He is obsessed with blaming me for everything. He admitted that he is unable to run the county and if he wants some services returned to the national government, I am ready to help him as a lawyer," Murkomen said in Iten.
The senator said he and Tolgos should resolve county problems maturely "as they are both aged above 40".
But the governor claimed that the senator, through assembly speaker Kiplagat Sabulei, was plotting to use Arror MCA Christopher Chemosong – who is also the deputy speaker – to engineer the impeachment motion.
“Their intention is to ward off the allegations of Arror-Kimwarer dams' scandal money being responsible for fueling political temperatures in our county. That scheme will not work,” he said.
Tolgos accused Murkomen of using diversionary tactics to shift attention from the issues on the ground concerning the budget row and the dams scandal.
He said he does not regret anything "because his development record speaks for itself and his achievements for the last seven years will not be erased by anyone".
He denied the senator's claims that the county had ghost workers who partly cause the financial crisis.
“If Murkomen is really serious with his oversight role, let him visit the county on an official working day and identify the purported ghost workers himself and also go round to get views from the electorate instead of the occasional roadside political meetings where he makes wayward statements without being asked any question.”
However, Murkomen said the county received enough resources "which the governor was unable to manage".
But Tolgos said, "Murkomen wants to portray me as weak through the push for more money to the assembly and reducing the executive. He will not be punishing me but the people of Elgeyo Marakwet who will suffer the consequences of being deprived of development."
He insisted that Murkomen was pulling strings at the county assembly to create disharmony for selfish political interests.
Edited by R.Wamochie
