Kawira Mwangaza impeachment: Did the bishop save the governor?

Meru County Governor Kawira Mwangaza is consoled by her husband Murega Baichu after she survived her second impeachment by the Senate on November 8, 2023, at the Parliament buildings, in Nairobi. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Kawira Mwangaza - two names loaded with optimism. Kawira - diligence and Mwangaza - illumination is a combination of leadership qualities that would delight any people. But diligence and illumination have suffered whirlwinds in Meru in the form of impeachments which nearly snuffed out Mwangaza's light and drained Kawira's diligence.

Governor Mwangaza's haters have sworn severally that gender has nothing to do with Meru woes. But this is not true, given the unacceptable attacks on Mwangaza's womanhood. The ouster agents have fuelled their tanks with female minimisation to fan a sorry narrative that Meru people erred in picking a female governor. There is no pride in chest thumping on how a woman should not lead. Any space that has no room for female leadership should count itself unfortunate. The thinking that women are lesser and that men are greater is no longer a premise in leadership. To keep attempting a return to that assumption is like pushing falling rain back to the clouds

While a lot has been said about the female factor in the Meru terrain, little is being said about Kawira Mwangaza's bishop factor. A closer look shows that attacks on her are aimed at effecting third degree burns. The first layer is that of Kawira as a general leader, the second is the female factor and the third is the bishop layer. The silent but vicious theory seems to hold that if you raise the temperatures to the third degree and burn the bishop's credibility, you destroy the foundation for the other layers and things will fall apart.

Mwangaza may not have set out to be an experiment but now she is a critical sample with many across the country curious to see how the governor-bishop combination pans out. Even the Kenyan history hardly has obvious success stories in the clergy-politician cluster. There are good stories on clergy who influenced politics significantly while remaining in their pulpit. Not so with servants of the cloth who crossed the floor by leaving the pulpit to take up the political podium. Holding up the dual platforms successfully is a daunting fete. In most accounts, the clergy part of the clergy-politician suffered beyond recognition.

Female governors in the country face their share of heat but Kawira's flames seem unique. The bishop factor has a lot to do with it. The absence of the clergy factor leaves the others with a play room that Mwangaza does not have. They are are weighed against their promises and hardly against their spirituality.

To hold both priest and politician positions is to be ready for many clashes. Kawira Mwangaza is an experiment attempting to defy the "clash" theory. So far there has been two clashes in the form of impeachments from the Meru laboratory. Graciously, the sample has survived the close shaves and the testing goes on. If we were to project based on the experience of two impeachments every 15 months it means we may have at least two more impeachments before the end of the five-year experiment. There is anxiety around whether the sample will survive especially given that the haters are getting meaner and the rocking is taking its toll on the diligence and light of Kawira Mwangaza.

Is Kawaira a bishop on a mission? A Bishop with an ambition? A bishop who has turned an ambition into a mission? Or an ambitious bishop masquerading as one on a mission? Only her conscious knows the answer to this. But from observation she is definitely an ambitious Bishop. She does not want to lose the Governor's glory. Others in Meru have ambitions to become governors too. The bishop title does not stop others from salivating for the position she holds. They are actually targeting that very bishop title to drill weaknesses into her leadership. As much as she may tactically hope for bishopric treatment, her competitors - and rightly so - give her political treatment.

The charges against Mwangaza were very "unbishopric": misappropriation, nepotism, bullying, illegalities and contempt. To the name bishop, people expect the antonyms of the ones on the list - accountable, just, kind, legitimate and cooperation. But Mwangaza makes a bishop-like response to the charges by wrapping herself with humility. One needs to put on some glasses to see the political tact in this humility. An open apology and a global forgiveness are ideal apparatus to plead for restarting blocks. She pivots herself on total depravity then makes maneuver where she pulls the forgiveness-for-all stunt. In a judgment situation, the magnanimity yields a moral set up that appeals to the senators to reciprocate generously to the remorse card.

This Bishop wants to remain governor. This demanded humility before those who have the power to save or hang. Some may see her humility as a godly posture. But those with eyes to see can discern that this is a political poise. She could not imagine losing her position and the best shot she could make was that of a humble bishop. And did she aim it well!

She did not cry for the cup of a suffering governor be removed from her - that would have been easily granted! She wants to drink from the governor's cup for eight more years! She is first on an ambition then a mission.

A mission looks like a fearful prophet running away into the desert - far from a threatening God-given assignment only to be smoked out by angels. The prophet wants to starve to death but to his disappointment the angels come bearing food and tell him exactly what you do not want to hear "Wake up and eat for the journey ahead is long." The prophet reluctantly and dutifully rises up to a journey he would rather not take.

Kawira is not running away instead she pleads with those with power to save her. She does not want to die - she has tasted the governor's honey and now she wants the hive! Mwangaza wants to sip from the sweet governor's cup. Give it up to the Bishop - she knows how to play it! But who did the senate declare "not guilty" - Governor Kawira or Bishop Mwangaza? Was her surviving an expression of innocence or an extension of grace?