• On Thursday, Tuju wrote to county leader of majority dismissing him from his position as the majority leader
• The dismissed official accused Jubilee secretary general of intimidating him and the assembly from performing their oversight role.
Image: Reuben Githinji
Jubilee secretary general Raphael Tuju has been accused of being used by Governor Anne Waiguru to intimidate Kirinyaga ward reps from discharging their oversight mandate.
Former County Assembly majority leader James Murango told the Star yesterday, “It is unfortunate that Tuju is applying double standards”.
He said the party boss was not applying the same rules when dealing with Waiguru as he did when the leadership of Kiambu assembly impeached former Governor Ferdinand Waititu.
Murango, who on Thursday dismissed by Tuju as leader of majority. also cited the recent attempt by Nairobi MCAs to impeach governor Mike Sonko, noting that Tuju never sacked the Jubilee leader of majority but instead President Uhuru Kenyatta called them to State House and ironed out the issues.
“What is it that Tuju is protecting in Kirinyaga? The MCAs are doing their work. Waiguru will remain innocent until proven guilty. Majority of MCAs have supported the motion and this process will go all the way to the Senate. So why is Tuju, an appointed official, harassing elected leaders?” he asked.
Accordng to him, the party secretary general has no role on who the MCAs elect to hold which position in the assembly.
“I don't remember being appointed by the party. The party constitution and our standing orders clearly state how a majority leader should be elected and removed. Secondly, a majority leader should not be a sycophant. I am an elected MCA first then a majority leader and I should stand in the gap whenever things go wrong,” he said.
Murango, who spoke to Star by phone, said he has discharged his duties well as a majority leader noting that for the last three years, he has executed the county government business in the assembly without fail.
He said the genesis of the fight between the MCAs and Waiguru is the failure to release bursaries and ward development money.
“For three years, we have passed budgets with allocations for bursaries and ward development funds but we are yet to receive them. The amount has also been slashed repeatedly to amounts that are not enough.
"The people of Kirinyaga are demanding services and if some people are no longer interested in the political careers they should not make all of us fail,” he said.
He said he had no regret for being fired for fighting for the rights of people of his ward and Kirinyaga county at large.
Tuju's letter of dismissal accused the MCA of not waiting for the party to resolve some of the issues the assembly had raised against Waiguru.
Tuju noted that some of the complaints against Waiguru were personal while others needed to be resolved following party organs.
The Cabinet Secretary without portfolio said Murango was part of MCAs, who addressed a press conference in which a notice of motion to impeach Waiguru was issued.
"Before we could read the whole dossier and have the tripartite meeting, to our consternation you became part of the cohort of mainly independent MCAs who addressed the mass media on the notice of motion to impeach the governor,” Tuju said.
He added: “It is no longer tenable for you to lead government business in the county assembly, we find this behaviour of refusing to listen to the party headquarters to be gross misconduct as articulated in article 13 of the party constitution.”
Tuju said Murango is at liberty to challenge his action at the ruling party’s dispute resolution committee or the Political Parties Dispute Resolution Committee.
On Saturday Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria jumped into the fray, castigating Tuju for interfering with the affairs of “an independent assembly”.
Kuria asked Murango to ignore the action taken by Tuju terming it null and void and that the assembly should “treat it with the utmost contempt it deserves.”
The vocal legislator defended the MCA, saying he was elected to carry out oversight role over the Kirinyaga county executive.
“The position of the leader of majority as enshrined in the Constitution, the Law and the Standing Orders is the preserve of the members of the County Assembly, the National Assembly and the Senate as the case may be. Hon Raphael Tuju or any other busy body has no business appointing or dismissing majority leaders,” he said in a statement to media.
Kuria accused the Jubilee officials of carrying out the affairs recklessly to the extent that “the unelected officials” behave like they own the party.
“They exhibit an owner-occupier mentality towards Jubilee Party. Even if they are the owners of the Jubilee House and we, the elected leaders are the tenants, even the tenants would have a right to purchase part of the home through a Tenant Purchase Scheme. Enough is enough. The tenants want their party back!” he said.
Tuju is a close ally of part leader Uhuru Kenyatta, who is also the President. Some of his actions are perceived to mirror the wishes of the party leader.
Kuria also questioned why Tuju did not act with the same manner during the Kiambu debacle.
“Even more astounding is how a secretary general has time to interfere with the affairs of a constitutionally mandated County Assembly when it tries to play its oversight role while he has consistently defied the directives of the party leader H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta to convene a Parliamentary Group Meeting for us, the tenants of the party to express our feelings to the owner-occupiers of the party on the various challenges facing the party and country.”
Kuria said since the ruling party has not sought the extension of the interim officials from the Registrar of Political Parties, Tuju and his team are in the office illegally.
He demanded that Tuju convenes two meetings - one for the National Executive Council (NEC) and the Parliamentary Group (PG) which was to take place some months ago.
Meanwhile, the High Court is today expected to rule whether the Kirinyaga County Assembly will continue its sittings.
MCAs Maureen Muthoni and Raphael Kariuki want the court to stop the sittings in bid to stop the spread the virus. The MCAs, through lawyer Steve Ogolla,argue that in the absence of urgent and exceptional business directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic, there is no rational justification for the assembly to resume sittings.
The county reps' decision to move to court was informed by the action by the assembly speaker to recall them from recess to discuss the impeachment motion against governor Wauguru.
In the impeachment motion filed on Tuesday last week, the MCAs accuse the governor of gross violation of the Constitution by among others not delivering the annual state of the county address to the assembly.
Muthoni and Kariuki argued that reconvening the assembly in the middle of the coronavirus crisis poses a real and imminent danger of new infections to the MCAs, staff and the public that interact in the assembly.
Ogolla submitted before Justice Weldon Korir that the court should direct the speaker to ensure adequate arrangements have been put in place to protect the members, staff and public from coronavirus infection.
The two fear that reconvening the assembly in the middle of the coronavirus crisis poses a real and imminent danger of new infections.
According to them, the assembly was adjourned on March 18 over the coronavirus situation in the country.
The County Assembly was represented by Ndegwa Njiru who argued that sufficient arrangements would be made to protect members.