• The governor launched signature collection exercise on Tuesday, petitioning President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve the government following a budget impasse with County Assembly.
• This transpired as seven Members of County Assembly were summoned by the Director of Criminal Investigations over incitement claims.
Image: FILE
Seven Taita Taveta MCAs were on Wednesday summoned by the Director of Criminal Investigations over incitement claims.
A July 3 letter signed by Voi subcounty DCI officer Samson Kiptum, summoned the seven to appear at its office in Voi police station on Friday to record statements.
But the MCAs have requested to record statements on Thursday because they will be engaged in house business on Friday.
Those summoned are Majority Leader Jason Tuja, chief whip Ibrahim Juma and Budget and Appropriation Committee chairman Godwin Kilele.
Others are Harris Keke (Rong'e Ward), Godfrey Mwambi (Mbololo), Paul Waweru (Marungu) and Christopher Mwambingu (Nominated).
Addressing press in Voi, Majority Leader Jason Tuja linked the summons to the ongoing disagreement between County Assembly and Governor Granton Samboja.
He said the move was aimed at silencing the MCAs who have stood their ground on the county budget impasse.
Mwambingu dismissed the incitement claims pointing out that Samboja was using it as a diversionary tactic.
On Tuesday, Governor Samboja kicked off an exercise to collect signatures in a petition to dissolve the county government.
The county chief had last Friday declined to sign the Sh5.6 billion county budget approved by the assembly for the financial year 2019-20.
In dispute is Sh833 million that the MCAs allocated themselves through the Ward Development Fund.
Samboja said the MCAs had violated the law for allocating Sh41.6 million for each ward, pointing out that the funds should be consolidated to implement a major project.
But in reply, assembly speaker Meshack Maghanga faulted the governor for being misinformed on the budgetary issues.
Maghanga said the budget estimates submitted to the county assembly by the executive had allocated Sh30.6 million per ward, while the MCAs had added Sh10 million for the governor to implement one flagship project in each ward.
The total development budget for the county is Sh1.8 billion.
The executive has been awarded Sh1.1 billion for projects, which Maghanga said is enough to undertake key county priorities.
Barely two years into his five-year term, the county is back in campaign mood.
Fleets of vehicles traverse major trade centres with music blaring from speakers as Samboja’s followers ask residents to append their signatures on the petition.
In the petition, Samboja accuses the assembly of derailing devolution by reducing money allocated for payment of pending bills, budget allocation for casual employees and allocation for Datu Sawazisha fund.
The county assembly had approved budgeting of pending bills worth Sh249 million.
But Samboja said the pending bills had accumulated to Sh414 million since the 2013-14.
Tuja rubbished the claims saying the executive and chief officer for finance told the assembly's budget committee that pending bills stood at Sh249 million.
Tuja said the executive had also failed to submit a list of all casual workers nor were the respective departments in which the said casual workers were engaged identified, raising suspicion of the existence of ghost workers.
Signatures
The county has at least 180,000 registered voters and Samboja requires a minimum of 18,000 signatures before submitting the petition to the President.
The governor said he has the support of Senator Jones Mwaruma and MPs Jones Mlolwa (Voi), Andrew Mwadime (Mwatate) and Danson Mwashako (Wundanyi) to dissolve the county government.
Once completed, the petition shall be handed to President Uhuru Kenyatta who shall appoint an independent commission of inquiry to look into issues raised.
Constitutionally, the President may suspend a county government if an emergency arising out of internal conflict or war or in any other exceptional circumstances.
A similar attempt by Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana to have Makueni County dissolved in 2014 bore no fruits after the President declined to approve the petition.
Mwang'ombe Mwambeo, a political analyst however warned county leaders against being excited by the prospect of dissolving the county government.
"Our political consciousness and philosophy are too low to be taken through such sophisticated process as dissolution and psychosocial trauma of being failures. I feel like both Samboja and the MCAs will lose this battle," Mwambeo said.
Taita Taveta Anglican Bishop Liverson Mng’onda called the two warring parties to reconcile for the sake of the county’s development.
He asked governor Samboja to abandon the campaign and dialogue with the MCAs.
Duncan Mwanyumba, an advocate of the High Court described Samboja's move as shrewd, noting that it could completely end the tenure of the defiant MCAs.
He advised both arms to consider the spirit of consultation, cooperation and consensus instead of politically maligning each other.
Regional Chamber of Commerce chairperson Andrew Mwamburi said the stalemate shall delay payment of pending bills thus negatively affect the businesses in the county.
He said that the business community had not been consulted to give input before the signature collection exercise was launched.
Businessman Waki Jarongo said dissolution of the county was ill-advised and that would result to hundreds of uncompleted projects.
(edited by O. Owino)