Nyeri County Governor Mutahi Kahiga has termed the impeachment of Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza as political witch hunt.

Speaking when he awarded bursaries to over 200 students under his scholarship, Kahiga said the Meru governor is being witch-hunted due to political issues, not the accusations being framed against her.

“Governor Kawira’s case is unique because the first impeachment motion was filed while she was only three months in office before she had received any budgetary allocation or even constituted a government,” Kahiga said.

Kahiga noted that the wrangles between the County Assembly and the Executive would only result in underperformance, and the common mwananchi is the one who is going to suffer.

He called upon President William Ruto to move quickly and contain the interference with counties since they are a creation of the Constitution.

“At times, we feel frustrated as counties by the national government. Why not fully devolve all functions? For instance, we have seen the recruitment of agricultural extension officers under a new name, agripreneurs. Who will they be reporting to since agriculture is a devolved function?” he posed.

On the controversial reduction of county allocations from Ksh400.1 billion to Ksh380 billion, Kahiga said the National Assembly has gone rogue and is being used to mistreat the county governments.

“The National Assembly is becoming rogue. We saw the other day they removed the Road Maintenance Levy Fund, which is constitutionally supposed to be with the counties, but we have gone to court to obtain orders to suspend that decision,” he said.

Kahiga added that as a result, his county will lose Ksh300 million, which is equivalent to one month’s county employees’ salaries.