Executives to blame for impeachment threats, says Senate Speaker Ekwe Ethuro

Senate Speaker Ekwe Ethuro has a word with a Senate official, Ms Luciane Limo during consultative retreat with implementation committees in Kisumu on October 14,2016. (Photo: Denish Ochieng/ Standard)

Senate Speaker Ekwe Ethuro has said wrangles and attempted impeachment of governors are due to bad blood between the Executive and county assemblies over failure to implement resolutions by the Legislature.

“The failure to coordinate, the lack of responsiveness by the Executive and their reluctance to implement resolutions of the assemblies is what is generating bad blood between our two arms of county governments,” said Mr Ethuro.

The Speaker said this yesterday at the start of a four-day consultative retreat on devolution at a Kisumu hotel.

The retreat brings together members of the Senate’s sessional committee on implementation and implementation committees from Homa Bay, Migori, Machakos, Makueni, Siaya, Kisumu, Busia, Vihiga, Wajir and Marsabit county assemblies.

The objective is to provide a consultative meeting with counties to find ways of working more efficiently in implementing House resolutions.

The meeting was also attended by senators Johnstone Muthama (Machakos) and James Orengo (Siaya).

Ethuro urged the Executive and the assemblies to build trust and consultations as a way of avoiding impeachment motions that were quickly becoming a trend in the counties. “This is why the committees of implementation will go a long way to help build trust in the counties. The biggest deficit we have as a nation is mistrust,” said Ethuro.

Giving the example of Nyeri County Governor Nderitu Gachagua’s attempted impeachment, Ethuro said: “I was convinced that he actually needed to be impeached given that honourable MCAs had slept in the chamber waiting for that opportunity.

But as a democratic nation we have rules and when we started going through the process, those who followed the proceedings agreed with the decision the Senate made to veto the Assembly’s decision,” said Ethuro.