Fresh elections are looming in Makueni after a commission set up to inquire into the dissolution of the county government recommended that it be suspended.
The commission of inquiry chaired by lawyer Mohammed Nyaoga presented its report to President Uhuru Kenyatta who the law requires to act within seven days.
If the President and the Senate agree that Makueni county government be suspended, elections for new Members of the County Assembly (MCAs), governor and deputy governor will be held within the next four months.
The dissolution proceedings came after Makueni residents petitioned President Kenyatta to dissolve the county government which has been hit by wrangling between the governor and members of the county assembly.
“The commission recommended that the Makueni county government be suspended,” Manoah Esipisu, the State House spokesperson, said in a statement.
“In line with the County Government Act, the President will render his decision on the report and its recommendation within the statutory timeline of 7 days.”
The law provides that if the President agrees with the recommendation of the commission, he will forward the report and recommendations together with the petition for suspension to the Speaker of the Senate.
A motion for suspension will be put before the House in seven days and its approval will be by a simple majority.
If the Senate votes to suspend the county, the President will formally effect the suspension for a period not exceeding 90 days within which elections will be called.
He will also appoint a caretaker management board to run the county in place of the suspended county executive committee.
“During a period of suspension, the Speaker and members of the county assembly shall remain in office and shall retain half their benefits,” the County Government Act says.
The commission’s report now puts Makueni, headed by Governor Kivutha Kibwana, closer to becoming the first failed county, less than three years after the devolved governance system came into being.
Francis Mailu Mulandi, who was one of the eight petitioners, said that the rivalry between the MCAs and the governor had left the county completely dysfunctional and unable to discharge its constitutional mandate.
The dispute allegedly began when the executive declined to allocate Sh1 billion that the county assembly was demanding from the budget.
The petition which was signed by 50,000 residents listed 46 grounds for dissolution among them flawed laws passed by the assembly which cannot be implemented as proof that the county government cannot discharge its constitutional mandate.
In September last year, five people, including Mr Kibwana’s chief of staff and a bodyguard, were shot as chaos rocked the county assembly.
A fresh election in the county will see the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission spend millions of shillings to replace the warring parties.
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