How discreet lobbying, alliances turned tide in favour of Nyaribo

Nyamira Governor Amos Nyaribo. [File, Standard]

For an unlikely politician who has now gained the moniker of a cat with nine lives, Nyamira Governor Amos Nyaribo’s triumph against a second attempt to kick him out of office on Tuesday broke history, making him the first county boss to survive two impeachment attempts at the county assembly level.

The governor told The Saturday Standard that he had offered an olive branch to the MCAs who had last week unanimously decided to kick him out but failed to marshal enough numbers at the Assembly after some of them switched sides at the last minute.

“Our problems are issues that we can handle. I have reached out to all MCAs so that we can have a meeting on how to move forward now that the impeachment is over,” said Nyaribo.

Having demonstrated his ability to survive when his United Progressive Alliance (UPA) party lobbied to save him from impeachment in October last year, few people believed he was going to sail through a second time.

This is because, unlike last year when Nyaribo’s UPA majority, which included six elected and 15 nominated MCAs stood by him, all elected ward representatives apart from Rigoma Ward Rep Nyambega Gisesa had signed this week’s impeachment motion.

To show that they had the upper hand this time round and that the governor had nowhere to hide, the MCAs de-whipped Gisesa from all positions and committees of the County Assembly for declining to sign the impeachment motion.

Nyamira has 34 MCAs, 19 of whom are elected and 15 special seats. Only a simple majority of 18 was required to impeach the county boss. Yet, when the rubber finally met the road at the County Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, it all boiled down to the tried and tested winning formula in politics of using strategy and numbers.

Twelve members of the County Assembly voted to save him against 22 who wanted him impeached. Those who wanted him out of the office needed at least 23 votes.

Once again, the governor survived. He now makes history as the first-ever county boss to survive two impeachment attempts at the county assembly. This is even though he did not bother to show up at the assembly to defend himself against the MCAs who were baying for his blood.

Instead, he sent his lawyers who argued that the motion did not pass the legal threshold required to impeach the governor.

“For an impeachment motion to succeed, there must be a nexus between the motion you are bringing and the governor. You cannot just bring a motion raising rumours and propaganda,” said Nyaribo’s lawyer Jacob Ngwele. “Let the MCAs work with the governor to enable him to achieve the objectives of his administration,” he said.

As the defeated MCA’s now retreat to lick their wounds hoping to fight another day, many of them are probably wondering how their impeachment motion, which by Tuesday morning had every indicator of passing, failed to reach the threshold by just a single vote.

Those in the know however, say there was a lot of backroom lobbying and late-night meetings that took place simultaneously in Nairobi, Kisii and Nyamira for the last week to turn the tide in favour of the governor.

With his back against the wall, Nyaribo who was in Nairobi since the impeachment was announced and only travelled to Kisumu on Monday night to watch the proceedings from a distance reached out to senior politicians and elders. He asked them to talk to their ward representatives to help him close ranks with the MCAs.

He also deployed Gisesa to lobby the members of the county assembly and get the required 11 MCAs who together with his single vote would stop the impeachment motion on its tracks.

By Monday afternoon three elected MCA’s including Leader of Majority Abel Mose who last week lobbied the assembly to de-whip Gisesa for not signing the impeachment motion had switched sides and were now in support of the governor.

Lobbying continued up to Tuesday morning when eight nominated MCA’s accepted to join the governor camp just before proceedings started at the assembly. All this while, those is support of the impeachment motion probably did not know that although they had the numbers, some of the MCA’s in their team had since switched sides.

Once the House was called to order, Wiper party’s nominated MCA Evans Matunda who fronted the motion laid down similar charges to the ones pressed against Nyaribo during the first attempt to impeach him in 2013. He urged his colleagues to back the motion on claims that Nyaribo had violated Article 181(a), (b) and (c) of the Constitution of Kenya. He also claimed that the county boss had violated Section 33 of the County Governments Acts (2012) and Standing Order No.62 of the Nyamira County Assembly.

He accused Nyaribo of gross violation of the Constitution, abuse of office, gross misconduct and misuse of public funds.

While these charges are not entirely new as they were brought forward last year, the incessant wrangling between the county assembly and governor are affecting service delivery for the residents. The county is yet to implement a single development project this financial year.

“Our roads are getting worse and we are yet to start repairing them as we head to the short rains and festive season.  Our street lights have gone off yet we are unable to execute aspects of budget,” said Gisesa.

Those within Nyaribo’s circle claim that the friction between the governor’s office and the MCAs started immediately after he took over from the late John Nyangarama in December 2020.

Nyaribo won the 2022 election on the little known UPA party with 82,000 votes after realizing he would not be handed the ODM ticket. His closest challenger Walter Nyambati of UDA garnered 49,281 votes while Timothy Bosire of ODM came a distant third.

Nyambati, Bosire and Nyamira Senator Okong’o Omogeni plus the Woman Rep Jerusha Momanyi are currently racing to unseat Nyaribo come 2027.