Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi can now rest a happy man after Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua brokered Monday a deal that saw MCAs abandon their quest to impeach him.
In an eight-hour-long meeting held Monday at the DP’s Karen residence, Wamatangi who had attended the meeting committed to establish a Sh600 million Ward Development Fund for the MCAs.
The governor also said he has no problem allowing the MCAs to implement development projects in the county.
The establishment and management of the Fund was one of the issues which had been raised by ward representatives.
They had also alleged that they were being sidelined in the allocation of bursaries.
“I have no problem in establishing the County Ward Development Fund in Kiambu County. We shall enact it immediately, with the House (County Assembly). We will give the MCAS the latitude to select priority projects. This will be Sh10 million per ward, totalling to Sh600 million out of the Sh2.8 billion development budget,” Wamatangi said.
He added:
“I will also give MCAs latitude to choose projects of priority within their wards. From the kitty each of the 60 electoral Wards will get Sh10 million from the development budget".
The Deputy President listened to the 86 MCAs, MPs from the county, the Senator and the governor separately before convening a joint meeting in which the outcomes were announced.
The Deputy President intervened in the leadership stalemate after the MCAs last week threatened to impeach Governor Wamatangi over various accusations.
"We are committed to the development of Kiambu county. President William Ruto asked me to have a sitting with you to find out what is ailing Kiambu for a solution," said the Deputy President.
He asked the leaders not to personalise leadership and to find a way of working together since serving the people requires complementarity.
"It does not look good for our backyard when leaders are fighting and we are saying that we are uniting the country. It does not look good when we are asking those who did not vote for us to join us and we are fighting. We campaigned together as one cohesive team. I don't know what has happened in one year that there are squabbles and exchange of words between leaders. We are together by a desire to work for the people. The people who voted for you are the same ones that voted for us," he continued.
Gachagua observed that since the advent of the devolved system of governance in 2013, Kiambu has not benefited because of leadership squabbles between the successive governors and MCAs.
To resolve the stalemate, he noted that the national government would work with both the governor and the MCAs on various projects such as the construction of modern trading markets.
“Listening to you all, the issues are solvable. We are not in great danger. I am in charge of intergovernmental relations. The President (President William Ruto) and I are against impeachments; they are not tidy; they are not necessary. We cannot allow Kiambu County to go wrong as we watch,” the Deputy President said.