Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu Sunday warned MCAs that she will not give in to their demands to change her manifesto and agenda for the county.
Ms Ngilu said she would rather the county be dissolved and fresh elections held than to yield to demands by MCAs for luxury holiday trips fashioned as bonding retreats or be pushed to implement projects that do not reflect people’s wishes.
The governor was speaking for the first time since the county assembly rejected her supplementary budget and impeached Finance minister Mary Nguli last month.
“The MCAs have rejected the supplementary budget because I insisted on putting 80 per cent of the funds under the community-level infrastructure projects for water. This is what the people who elected me want, and I will not betray them,” she said.
She said the MCAs were only focused on opposing every programme the county government was undertaking to derail her agenda for the sake of political expediency without minding welfare of the people.
“You all know that the assembly is headed by a man who unsuccessfully tried to unseat me for 20 years as the MP for Kitui Central, and theirs is just an agenda to frustrate me,” she said in reference to County Assembly Speaker George Ndotto.
Governor Ngilu spoke in Mwingi Town during the installation of the new Bishop for the Africa Inland Church, the Rev Timothy Kituo. “I proposed we increase the water and health budget in line with people’s needs, but the assembly is demanding leisure trips to Mombasa. If we can’t agree on what is good for Kitui people, then let’s agree to dissolve the county and seek fresh mandates from the people” she said.
Ms Ngilu said she was ready to face the ultimate political arbitration by Kitui people through the ballot on who is right between the executive and the assembly and that the MCAs should be ready to have the county government dissolved.