Governor Mutua slams MCAs for rejecting his nominees

Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua has read malice in the County Assembly’s rejection of his nominees to the County Executive Committee.

In a press statement on Wednesday (November 8), Governor Mutua said the County Assembly Appointment Committee acted in bad faith during the vetting process of his five nominees to ministerial positions of the Machakos County Government.

“It was clear from the beginning that the vetting process had been infiltrated by malice and partisan political considerations. The committee acted in bad faith and has been hell bent to stop the Executive from executing development and providing services to wananchi,” said Governor Mutua.

The Governor also blamed the committee for wrongful interpretation of the law in rejecting his nominees.

“The committee has misdirected, misread and misinterpreted the law on vetting to justify pre-meditated and agreed positions to reject the nominees,”says Mutua.

The Maendeleo Chap Chap Party leader assured Machakos residents that there was no vacuum in the county government, saying that the law, under the County Government Act and the Public Appointments (County Assemblies Approval) Act allowed the pre-existing county ministers to remain in office.

“The county executive that was in office before the elections continues being in office until a new one is vetted and appointed,” Governor Mutua said.

The five nominees were rejected over what the appointing committee said was lack of academic and professional qualifications for the executive positions they had been nominated, with integrity issues ruling out some nominees.

Three of the nominees were previously serving as county executives during Governor Mutua’s first term in office prior to his re-election in the August 8 General Election.

Faith Kithu, Naomi Mutie and Ruth Nduku were already ministers in charge of Education, Water and Agriculture while the new nominees were Dr. Ali Mohammed and Mbithi Kimeu, nominated in the Health and Labour ministries respectively.

None of the nominees managed to get above 40 marks, according to the evaluation of the County Assembly, which had set the threshold at 70 marks.

The process of appointment of county executive members is provided for in Article 179(2) of the Constitution, which provides that MCAs have the final say on the county executive nominees presented by the governor.

If the assembly rejects the nominees list, the governor has to tender a new list for approval.

The Machakos County Assembly is dominated by the Wiper Party which Governor Mutua left to form Maendeleo Chap Chap Party after falling out with Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka.

Of the 40 ward seats in Machakos, 18 are drawn from Wiper with only nine coming from Maendeleo Chap Chap. The remaining 13 MCAs belong to parties such as Party of independent Candidates (PICK), NARC, FORD-Kenya and Independents.