• Governor accused of financial improprieties involving tenders, travel and conferring benefits upon herself.
• MCAs allege a litany of financial wrongdoing but she called them 'minor administrative issues' that could be easily clarified.
Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru used proxies and fictitious companies to award herself and her allies lucrative county tenders amounting to more than Sh145 million, MCAs have alleged.
In addition, Waiguru awarded herself Sh10.63 million in imprests ostensibly as travel allowances for foreign trips she never made, they said. And she allegedly allowed health facilities to run down.
These were among the allegations MCAs made on Tuesday during the governor’s impeachment hearing before a Senate panel. They have said that if the Senate fails to confirm her impeachment, they will impeach her again.
The allegations of financial wrongdoing are the most serious. But Waiguru called the whole exercise a malicious fishing expedition
MCAs also accused the governor of abuse of office by violating procurement and public finance laws. They said she committed a gross violation of the Constitution by failing to deliver the annual State of the County address.
“The governor’s said actions of interfering with the constitution of the tender evaluation committees is meant to compromise the integrity of the tendering process and the same is driven by nepotism, favoritism, improper and ulterior motives, and for corrupt purposes,” the charges read.
But the beleaguered county chief trashed the charges as false, unfounded and fallacious meant to embarrass her and destabilise her administration.
“These MCAs are on a fishing expedition. Their superficial evidence is unintelligible. Impeachment should not be based on malice, innuendos and rumours,” she told the panel.
“The grounds [for impeachment] relate to minor administrative issues that could easily have been clarified by a routine enquiry. The process should involve the people. No formal public participation took pace,” Waiguru said.
She also said she was not given an opportunity to defend herself before MCAs who voted overwhelmingly to remove her.
Regardless of the charges, pro-Jubilee senators want her saved by the committee, saying she is a political mainstay of the Building Bridges Initiative in Central Kenya.
Her legal team comprising her husband Kamotho Waiganjo and seasoned lawyer Paul Nyamodi put up a spirited fight, discounting the grounds advanced for her removal.
In their charges against Waiguru, the MCAs sought to expose how Waiguru violated procurement laws and abused her office powers to strategically place her confidants at the helm of the county tender committees.
During the cross examination of Mutira MCA Kinyua Wangui, the motion mover and the first witness, he testified Waiguru appointed her former PA Pauline Kamau as director of county administration.
She also appointed Wayne Gichera as ICT chief and the two of them alternated in chairing tender committees, the MCA said.
“Governor, this [Kamau] your personal assistant, you pushed her to director of administration to chair tender committees despite not being qualified. You can deduce why,” Wangui said.
Those two allies, MCAs claimed in the charges, directly received instructions from the governor to award all mega county tenders to her preferred bidders, including county staff.
“The governor has been in charge of a corrupt county tendering policy contrary to the provisions of the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Act, 2015,” MCAs said.
Through lawyer Ndegwa Njiru, the MCAs submitted that Waiguru interfered with county tendering processes.
They cited a Sh19.14 million tender was awarded to Joames Investment Company for the upgrading of Kagumo market on December 20, 2018.
“The award having not been cancelled, the tender was unilaterally undertaken by Master Rock Construction Company whose bid was non-responsive, thereby violating the Constitution and the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Act, 2015,” they said.
Further, the relentless ward reps claimed the tender committee, under the watch of the governor, awarded a Sh30.09 million contract to Jipsy Civil and Building Contractors.
The contract was for the construction of Kagio matatu parking and was reserved for AGPO (Access to Government Procurement Opportunities).
Jipsy, they said, was not listed in AGPO in 2017-18, and it was the highest bidder.
The MCAs further alleged the tender committee, chaired Waiguru’s former PA awarded a Sh9.94 million tender for the construction of the Riagicheru Irrigation Water Project to Eva Trading Agencies Limited in March 2018.
The company is said to be linked with the family of the county chief officer for Finance whose brother holds 300 shares in the firm.
In 2018, they said, the county paid Sh50.69 million to Velocity Partners Limited, a firm that “did not exist” at the time of the award of the tender.
“The contract signed between the county government of Kirinyaga and Velocity Partners Limited in the month of May 2018 was for Sh27.20 million and the total amount paid out by the county government amounts to Sh50.69 million,” the charges read.
But Waiguru's lawyers discounted the claims as fictitious and challenged the MCAs to prove their veracity.
The bulk of the cash – Sh30.64 million – was paid vide an invoice dated August 9, 2018, on the same day of the invoice.
Waiguru, they claimed, irregularly procured a car for Sh15 million despite the same having been procured during the former governor’s regime.
“This purchase was made using funds meant for the contractors retention account – in a recurrent vote - which action amounts to misappropriation of funds and imprudent use of public resources,” the charges read.
The Executive, according to the motion mover Wangui, submitted a supplementary budget in October despite the expenditure being incurred in April.
To back the abuse of office claims, the MCAs said Waiguru was irregularly paid Sh10.63 million for travel allowances by way of imprests for trips to France, China and the US.
The governor, they claimed, did not travel. In addition, she has not returned the imprests contrary to the law.
However, lawyer Waiganjo discounted that submission, and demanded evidence from the MCA that he governor did not surrender the imprest.
Wangui said, “Some of the imprest - but after this motion was filed. The law states the period under an imprest should be surrendered. From March until May, you could see the intention to defraud the county.”
The MCAs also faulted the governor for disregarding recommendations of the county Public Service Board not to pay the members of the board of the Kirinyaga Investment Development Authority until the same was approved by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
“The governor has continued to have the board of KIDA paid outside Ifmis and the County Government Payroll,” they said, “which amounts to abuse of office and has contravened the provisions of Public Finance Management Act.”