• The governor said MCAs could not substantiate issues they had raised against her.
• She asked the Senate committee to only focus on the evidence tabled before it.
Image: ALICE WAITHERA
Embattled Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has said the MCAs failed to prove their case in the impeachment motion tabled before the Senate.
In a press statement on Thursday Waiguru said most of the issues raised were based on allegations that had no evidence.
The governor said the Senate should exonerate her.
Waiguru said the MCAs had failed to directly link her to any malpractices in issuance of tenders.
They could also not show that any of the tenders mentioned accrued personal benefit to her or her relatives, she said.
The assembly also failed to prove that the county incurred any financial losses as result of the said tender awards, she added.
“There was nothing to link me to the tenders whatsoever. The allegations made are just fabrications that the assembly could not substantiate and therefore senate should not impeach me,” she said.
The governor explained that the issues raised were purely administrative and technical and based on conflict of interest between an officer in the county and his relatives.
She said that she had sufficiently proven to the senate committee that she had either travelled or money refunded and evidence provided regarding trips that had been cancelled.
The county chief said assembly majority leader Kamau Murango had himself been in two of the disputed trips.
The governor has been accused of irregularly awarding herself Sh10.6 million in travel allowances through imprests yet she had not travelled.
On the alleged purchase of the governor’s official vehicle, Waiguru said even the Senate committee had observed that there is a legal provision to buy it.
“This arrangement allows government entities to procure vehicles from a government appointed manufacturer at a cheaper price without having to go through the tendering process,” she said.
“The constitutional matters raised by the assembly among them failure to deliver the State of the County Address in the assembly failed any constitutional backing and were disapproved,” the governor added.
She however pointed out that she had delivered the state of the county address both in 2018 and 2019, and tabled evidence for them.
The governor said she tabled adequate evidence in rebuttal of all the claims made against her.
The motive behind the impeachment motion can only be attributed to political conspiracies both within and outside the county, she said.
“The assembly failed to table evidence to substantiate its claims which are based on hearsays and were not directly connected to me in any way that could implicate me in gross violation of the constitution or abuse of office,” Waiguru said.
She asked the Senate committee led by Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala to only focus on substantiated evidence so that justice is delivered for her and the people of Kirinyaga.