Kiambu MCAs pass no-confidence motion against committee chair
By Oliver Musembi, February 25, 2023Members of the Kiambu County Assembly (MCAs) Planning Committee have moved to pass a motion of no-confidence against their chairperson after allegations that he extorted money from a developer.
In a letter addressed to Deputy Speaker John Njiru who is also the Chairman of the County Liaison Committee, 10 members of the Lands, Housing, Physical Planning, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Committee have recommended that Ruth Waithira be relieved of her duties as chairperson and also removed from the committee as a member.
They accused the chair lady who is the MCA for Githiga ward of negotiating with a developer from Juja sub-county without the members’ knowledge.
“The negotiations were meant for extortion. This portrays a very bad image for the entire committee and taints the integrity of honourable members,” the letter dated February 22, 2023, reads in parts.
Further, they accused Waithera of engaging in negotiations with developers in Kiambaa (Ruaka sub-county), Safaricom and others in total disregard for members.
The committee members have proposed that Waithera be replaced by the vice-chairman Moses Wambiri of Murera ward and that the position of vice-chairman is occupied by David Mwaura (Ndenderu ward).
This comes as Governor Kimani Wamatangi recently commissioned an audit of all residential and commercial buildings across the county, both complete and those under construction, to examine structural integrity.
The move was meant to address the continuous collapsing of buildings, leading to deaths in what has been attributed to poor workmanship as a result of failure by the previous county administrations to enforce compliance and rout corruption.
The exercise dubbed ‘Rapid Response Initiative’ on building approval compliance and enforcement spearheaded by Lands and Planning county executive committee member Salome Muthoni and Public Administration CECM Dr Margaret Ruinge is to ensure developers obtain the requisite approvals including occupational certificates.
“The audit being done in collaboration with the national government will culminate in the developers getting an opportunity to regularize approvals and certificates where the buildings will be marked as safe by experts and hazardous ones brought down, and owners paraded in court,” Wamatangi said during the commissioning.
Preliminary investigations have established that about 90 per cent of recently constructed buildings, including those occupied, have been constructed without approvals and developers doing construction against the approved plans, and some of them are already in a precarious state.