President Uhuru Kenyatta declines to disband Makueni County government

President Uhuru Kenyatta receives the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the petition to suspend Makueni County Government from Chair Mohammed Nyaoga. (Photo: PSCU)

President Uhuru Kenyatta has overruled the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into the Makueni County government crisis, saving it from going down in history as the first county administration to be dissolved.

The President overturned the decision of the Mohammed Nyaoga-led commission, which had called for the suspension of the county government. He said the reasons the commission advanced to back its position did not, to him, constitute exceptional and extraordinary circumstances to meet the threshold set in the Constitution.

The President noted that while the commission had in its report outlined a litany of issues on how the county government was running, the same did not constitute justifiable grounds 'to extinguish an elected government'.

"The litany of failures, in the President's considered opinion, do not meet the high bar set for the exercise of this special power," said President Kenyatta in a statement released by State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu. The Head of State, who had the penultimate discretion of suspending the county – with the final decision vested on the Senate – argued that an extraordinarily high standard had been set in the Constitution for him to exercise the powers.

The President said being the first time that a decision on suspension of the county had to be made, the right precedent needed to be set by setting a high-bar threshold to ensure that counties are not suspended on weak grounds, which could expose devolution.

"In view of the special place of devolution in our new constitutional order, and the need to set the right precedents, the President believes a decision that results in the ejection of an elected government is extremely grave and one that ought to be exercised sparingly and in the most exceptional circumstances," noted the statement.

The President however took note of the alarming and deplorable failures of the county, citing the financial paralysis occasioned on the devolved unit in the 2013/204 financial year after the county assembly and the Executive failed to pass the budget for five months.

"In another case, MCAs made 14 foreign trips in 2013/14 using re-allocated funds. Also, the report cites a gunfight within the precincts of the assembly where five people were shot and injured, including the sergeant-at-arms of the assembly and the governor's chief of staff," he noted.

He however said there were other constitutional, legal and political architecture provided in law to deal with such mal-administration, corruption and ineptitude, instead of resulting to the county's suspension.

The decision now brings to an end the process that saw the special commission sitting for months as it sought to identify the crisis that has rocked the county and give remedies.