‘Difficult’ Waiguru tackled by reps

At the opening of the upgraded Wang’uru market last October, Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru was joined in a dance by some ward reps — the video went viral on social media.

“Kirinyaga’s Got Talent!! DG, MCAs and I got to dust off our dancing skills with this talented youth group from Mwea,” the governor tweeted. The ward reps were Majority Leader Kamau Murango and Budget Committee chairman David Mathenge.

But in an interesting turn of events, the two assembly members were on Thursday part of the group that visited the Senate to hand in the resolution of the House to impeach the governor.

The standoff pitting Governor Waiguru against the assembly has in a few months grown into a full-blown political war, sucking in other leaders.

When she took office, Ms Waiguru enjoyed a brief lull before a storm blew up, with ward reps becoming a thorn in her flesh. When they were not accusing her of failing to account for development projects, they would be shooting down budgets or rejecting her appointees.

The impeachment threats against the governor, which materialised on Tuesday, started last year after she slashed a Sh70 million bursary fund to Sh20 million.

At the time, the governor, a career civil servant who quit a ministerial job amid graft allegations, said the differences between her and a few ward reps should not be misconstrued to mean differences with the entire assembly.

She had also rejected the ward reps’ bid to create a ward development fund that had been declared illegal by the Controller of Budget.

But several other disagreements point to the leadership wrangles in the county.

Earlier this year, 12 ward representatives who had been ousted as chairpersons of key assembly committees were reinstated by courts after being replaced by a pro-Waiguru team.

The representatives have since been flexing their muscles and recently abolished the governor's Directorate of Liaison and Communications, terming it a propaganda tool to fight them.

But the battle for Kirinyaga has not always been the governor versus MCAs.

When Ms Waiguru announced her intentions to run for governor, Woman Rep Wangui Ngirici, a flamboyant businesswoman, was one of her greatest supporters. But on Saturday Ms Ngirici told the Sunday Nation she was okay with the happenings in the assembly.

“We will not condone corruption. It’s that simple and clear. We shall not allow the misappropriation of public funds,” she said.

In a previous interview, Ms Ngirici accused the governor of “becoming high-handed in dealing with other leaders”.

At least two county executives have quit under Ms Waiguru’s administration, accusing her of losing touch with the realities on the ground.

Former Gender and Youth Executive Lynette Wanjiru quit nine days after the governor accused her of inefficiency and threatened to take disciplinary action against her.

Former Health boss Agnes Gachoki had quit months earlier, accusing the governor of frustrating her.

A few days before the impeachment, Senator Charles Kibiru implored the governor to show leadership on the issues raised by the assembly on the budget and nomination of members to the County Public Service Board.

Tebere Ward Rep Gudson Muchina describes Ms Waiguru as aloof.

“The governor is not friendly to MCAs and we felt that she was the most difficult leader to work with.”

His Wamumu counterpart Baptista Kanga said Ms Waiguru had ignored ward representatives long enough and underestimated their political strength.

“We wanted to demonstrate to the county boss that we are a force to reckon with after she frustrated our efforts to ensure all wards are allocated a certain amount of funds for development projects to benefit our people,” Mr Kanga said.

Since Ms Waiguru was elected governor in 2017, she has survived the rough and tumble of Kirinyaga politics.

Her love-hate relationship with ODM leader Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto, both of whom were highly critical of her tenure at the Devolution ministry, has drawn a lot of interest.

In 2015, she had a major political falling-out with Mr Odinga and DP Ruto following accusations related to the embezzlement of funds from the National Youth Service.

She decamped to the Kenyatta-Odinga faction after accusing the pro-Ruto group of only being interested in criticising the President’s development record and championing the DP’s political interests instead of pushing for the region’s interests.

She has since been a leading light in the Kieleweke faction of the Jubilee Party and defends the President from attacks by the Tangatanga faction.