Kitui assembly goes on recess split over speaker impeachment

The MCAs are divided over the impeachment of speaker Kevin Katisya.

Katisya on Wednesday presided over the deliberation and approval of a motion of adjournment by majority leader Harrison Maluki, two days after the assembly clerk stopped a motion to impeach him.

Despite the reprieve, Maluki's remarks during a presser pointed to a divided house, between those who support Katisya and those against him. 

Maluki described the other camp, which he said all along did not recognise Katisya as the duly elected speaker, and their external supporters as evil forces.

“Today, we stand here to shame the evil forces and maintain our unity, which is meant to serve and deliver service and development to the great people of Kitui,” said the statement by the pro-Katisya faction that Maluki read to the press.

The statement said more than 40 MCAs were behind the speaker.

Maluki said since Katisya was elected into office six months ago, external forces have worked to destabilise the county assembly having never come to terms with the reality of his election.

The bid to impeach Katisya came to the fore on Wednesday last week when Kivou MCA Sammy Munyithya filed a notice with the office of the clerk.

The notice of motion to impeach Katisya was signed by 25 MCAs.

On the same day, Munyithya and eight colleagues held a press conference at a Kitui hotel and said they were unhappy with Katisya’s leadership.

They vowed to pursue the impeachment to its logical conclusion.

Munyithya’s motion charged that through his actions and omissions, the speaker had caused the assembly great embarrassment and brought the office to disrepute.

But the anti-Katisya group suffered a setback on Tuesday when the clerk disallowed the impeachment motion on the basis that some signatures backing it were forgeries.

Clerk Elijah Mutambuki wrote to him indicating that eight MCAs had disowned the signatures appended to the motion as forgeries.

The clerk said that consequently reduced the backers of the motion to 17 of the total 60 MCAs and, thus, it fell short of the requisite one-third support threshold to proceed for deliberation.

 “To date, eight members have written back denying knowledge of the said signatures and some alleging forgery of their signatures/details,” said the letter sent on Tuesday.

“Subsequently, I hereby but very humbly, return the said motion to you for your further action.” 

Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya