• Governor said Mt Kenya was fully backing President Kenyatta's and ODM Raila's BBI.
• Nyeri assembly speaker says county plans on carrying out public participation before deliberating on bill.
Image: FILE
Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has come under fire after declaring the Punguza Mizigo constitutional amendment initiative dead.
The governor blasted Thirdway Alliance party leader Ekuru Aukot's bill saying Central Kenya was rallying behind President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga's Building Bridges Initiative.
“Mt Kenya is fully in support of BBI as evidenced in Nyeri where the the Punguza Mizigo Bill has been rejected by the whole assembly,” the governor wrote on her Twitter page on Wednesday.
She went on, “Nyeri county has set the precedence, other counties are most likely to follow. These are signs of the times ahead.”
Her statement elicited sharp reactions from Kenyans on social media with Nyeri speaker John Kaguchia denying her assertions that the county had rejected the Punguza Mizigo Bill.
“As the Nyeri county assembly speaker, I can authoritatively confirm that we have not yet debated the bill,” Kaguchia tweeted.
The speaker said the county assembly had an informal conversation with Aukot but did not debate the bill as claimed.
“Give Nyeri an opportunity to do public participation and freely debate this bill and make a decision that will be well informed without any pressure,” Kaguchia said.
Thirdway Alliance party, which is the sponsor of the initiative, lashed out at Waiguru accusing her of spinning falsehoods.
“I don't want to imagine that you are one of the senior propagandists we have around. You can do better,” party secretary general Fredrick Okango said in a reply to Waiguru's tweet.
Waiguru's statement was also interpreted through the political lenses with a section of social media users accusing her of trying to arrogate herself the role of the Central Kenya spokesperson.
“Have you become Mt Kenya nowadays?” one user tweeted back.
But prominent lawyer Donald Kikorir backed Waiguru's claim that Punguza Mizigo initiative was doomed.
“Punguza Mizigo is the biggest political fraud in Kenya's history...it is a high sounding phrase with no substance..full of sound and fury but signifying nothing!” the Nairobi-based lawyer wrote on Twitter.
Edited by R.Wamochie