Either Meru County has become the proverbial sick man of Kenya’s devolved units or something is irredeemably wrong with members of the county assembly.

Within about two years, MCAs have made two attempts to impeach Governor Kawira Mwangaza, with the third move expected to be tabled in the assembly today.

This calls for a serious retrospection of the county’s affairs, beginning with the MCAs’ aspirations, vision and agenda for the devolved unit and the governor’s style of leadership and modus operandi.

In November Senate lawmakers defied the traditional party-line voting pattern to save Mwangaza from all the seven charges that had been brought against her by MCAs.

The 51-year-old governor survived the second impeachment motion after senators dismissed all the charges against her as unsubstantiated and rejected the MCAs’ motion.

Meru County has never had peace since the election of Mwangaza, whom MCAs have on several occasions accused of various failures, ranging from misappropriation of funds and high-handedness to incompetence.

The first attempt to kick her out was filed in the assembly in November 22,2022 but was halted by the High Court eight days later.

But this did not end MCAs’ desire to remove the governor, as on December 12, 2022, a fresh motion was filed and successfully debated in the assembly, with 67 of the assembly’s members voting in favour of impeaching the governor. Mwangaza was later saved by the Senate in a unanimous decision.

In the latest bid, nine MCAs have petitioned President William Ruto to suspend the county government, claiming the devolved unit has turned into a national shame and an object of ridicule.

MCAs claim, among other grounds, that the executive and legislature are not only at loggerheads but operating at extremes, the devolved unit has irretrievably broken down and is completely dysfunctional.

Instead of the executive and the legislature working together as one government, MCAs argue, they are operating two parallel governments one under Mwangaza and the other under the assembly Speaker Ayub Bundi Solomon.