•“Let’s not be distracted, don’t be intimidated by anybody,” Ndeti told the MCAs.
•"Don’t also allow anyone to intimidate you, they won’t take you anywhere,” Ndeti added.
Machakos MCAs have told off MPs from the region who are opposed to Governor Wavinya Ndeti’s leadership stating that they should focus on their constitutional roles
They accused some of the legislators of meddling in Ndeti’s administration for their interests instead of executing the mandates for which they were elected to parliament.
The Machakos legislators claimed the MPs' motives were to distract Ndeti with baseless politics so that she would lose focus on delivering necessary services to the electorate.
Machakos County Assembly leader of majority Nicholas Nzioka said 95 percent of the county legislators were in support of Ndeti’s administration.
“The work Ndeti did when she was Kathiani MP was commendable. She has, however, done ten times of the work in all the 40 wards of Machakos as a governor,” Nzioka said.
They spoke during a public participation exercise at the Liberty Grounds in Mlolongo, Mavoko subcounty over the weekend.
The exercise conducted in the entire county was meant to validate proposed development priorities for the 2024/25 Financial year as outlined by the respective residents within the wards.
Nzioka said that a majority of the MCAs were in Ndeti’s support as the Machakos governor for ten years
“We are supporting the governor and will do so until 2032. ‘Kumi bila break',” Nzioka said.
He said the MPs criticizing Ndeti contested for the positions they wanted and won in 2022 hence should concentrate on serving the electorate and leave the governor alone.
Nzioka said that MCAs, their platform is the Machakos County Assembly, while MPs have the parliament as a platform.
“We help the governor deliver services to the public, and if you were elected to parliament, what business do you have with MCAs?” Nzioka poised.
He told the MPs to go struggle with their colleagues in parliament.
“Go do your business in the National Assembly. We want to see you fighting for the public during the Housing Levy and Finance bill,” Nzioka said.
Nzioka criticized some of the MPs for missing out on parliament when the two bills were being passed.
“They miss sittings wherever important policies are being voted for in parliament. Kila mtu afanye kazi yake,” Nzioka said.
His Kinanie counterpart Francis Kavyu said MPs from outside Mavoko should stop lecturing them (Mavoko residents).
“As Mavoko residents we know what we want. We don’t want people from other constituencies to dictate the way we should live in Machakos. A few people who don’t want the constituency to grow for the last ten years chased former Governor Alfred Mutua from the constituency,” Kavyu said.
Kavyu said the same people had attempted chasing Ndeti in the same way, a vice he said they won’t succeed in.
“We want to put them on notice. We now have a governor who hails from Mavoko, they won’t succeed,” Kavyu said.
Athi River MCA Jeremiah Kaloi said it wasn’t an offence for the MCAs to walk and work with Ndeti.
“We will stand with the governor. MCAs were elected by the people. Let’s give her ample time to deliver developmental projects to the public,” Kaloi said.
Machakos Deputy Governor Francis Mwangangi said those fighting the governor were doing so for personal interests.
“As they fight the governor, they say that the funds that they will use to remove her from the office will come from quarries. They are fighting because they nolonger collect money from the quarries,” Mwangangi said.
He urged the governor to intensify security in Mavoko quarries to protect investors from gangs involved in unlawful activities and improve revenue collection in her administration.
Mwangangi lauded the governor for enforcing cashless revenue collection since all revenues are paid via Mpesa paybill
Ndeti on her part told Machakos residents and MCAs to ignore her critics.
“Let’s not be distracted, don’t be intimidated by anybody,” Ndeti told the MCAs.
“Don’t also allow anyone to intimidate you, they won’t take you anywhere.”
She said she was made the governor by the electorate through their votes hence won’t be distracted by malicious criticisms.
“I won’t leave this seat to anybody, they aren’t only men, even my deputy Mwangangi is a man,” Ndeti said.
“They should know that we are the government and working well. We must work in collaboration for the public’s interests,” Ndeti said.