Former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga has called on the Laikipia County Executive and the Assembly to shun supremacy battles that have lately been witnessed for the sake of development.
Speaking on Tuesday after attending the assembly’s afternoon session, Njenga who was joined by other church leaders from Laikipia appealed to the two arms of government to stop the tug of war and focus on service delivery to local citizens.
“We want to see the governor (Ndiritu Muriithi) and the county assembly speaking in one voice so that development can be fast-tracked. The constant wrangles are not good for the image of the county,” Njenga said.
During the afternoon House session, the MCAs claimed that substantive Chief Officers in various dockets had not been appointed by the executive, hence limiting their efforts to execute their mandate.
The legislators claimed that the county boss had deliberately delayed appointing the officers two years to his tenure so that he could have them on his leash when they are in an acting capacity.
They further claimed that Finance and Economic planning County Executive member Murungi Ndai had failed to honour invites from the Assembly’s Finance committee to shed light on several queries.
“Whenever we enquire for answers from Chief Officers on various issues pertaining to the county, they always tell us that they are on acting capacity and that they cannot respond. It is time we acted as the Legislature,” Sosian ward MCA Jacob Endom said.
Igwamiti MCA Joseph Kiguru told the House that the committee had unsuccessfully invited Ndai to appear before the committee.
“We invited the CEC severally but he has ignored the committee. I am obliged to represent my people but not being loyal to the Governor,” Mr Kiguru said.
Nominated MCA Zamzam Salma said: “We are being told that Laikipia is on the move but that is misleading because we are still stagnated since we don’t have substantive Chief Officers and administrators since this regime took over”.
In June this year, the assembly impeached Ndai and his Trade and Tourism counterpart Biwott Tirop accusing them of violating the constitution while running their dockets. They were however reinstated after Labour court quashed the impeachments.
House Speaker Patrick Waigwa told the MCAs to utilize their legislative powers to keenly oversight Muriithi’s administration.
“You should utilize Standing Order 189 of the House. This House should not be taken for granted. You did not attain your respective seats by the help of the Executive. Do not be intimidated, use your powers to ensure that answers are provided to queries while implementing your oversight role,” Mr Waigwa said.
Recently, the lawmakers shot down plans by the County Government to spend Sh190 million in this financial year to lay off some of its workers.
The local Executive had allocated Sh190 million for public service restructuring in its budget estimates for 2019/2020.