Nakuru County Roads and Infrastructure CeC Lucy Kariuki has been impeached.
This is after 49 MCAs voted for a motion to oust her, with 21 MCAs voting for her stay and one MCA abstaining from voting.
The motion to impeach her had been tabled by the MCA Peter Kajwang’-led ad hoc committee that was probing her misconduct after the House in March adopted a report by the Committee on Infrastructure that recommended her impeachment.
The MCAs had accused the impeached CeC of failing to deliver on the Boresha Barabara and street lighting projects. The motion was pillared on three aspects which include abuse of office, incompetence and gross misconduct.
They said even after raising concerns on the projects in various wards and summoning the CeC 12 times, she only showed up four times and ignored the rest of the summons.
The report that was tabled by the Infrastructure Committee chair Michael Machembu had three recommendations: that Kariuki is given an opportunity to defend herself on the floor of the House, Governor Lee Kinyanjui makes changes to his Cabinet or the CeC gets kicked out of office.
The CeC was given an opportunity to defend herself last week but was unable to convince the ad-hoc committee on why she should not be removed from office.
This comes just a day after Governor Lee Kinyanjui made changes to his Cabinet, transferring Kariuki to the Gender, Youth, Sports and Culture docket that was left vacant after youths wrote a petition that saw the removal of the then CeC Halima Gababa.
Addressing media after the impeachment of Kariuki, the ad-hoc committee chair MCA Peter Kajwang’ said they had not received any official communication on the changes in the Cabinet and thus could not rely on rumours.
“The House has adopted the motion to impeach her and as it stands now it means the CeC is not fit to hold any office in this county,” said Kajwang'.
Ol-Karia Ward MCA Peter Palang’a who is also the Minority Leader called on the executive to ensure the execution of the decision taken by the MCAs.
“As an Assembly, we have not received any formal communication from the executive concerning the changes in the Cabinet. We have impeached her on grounds of integrity and that remains. We expect nothing more than the execution of the decision,” said Palang’a.