Closing Remarks by Anne Waiguru During Senate Impeachment Hearings

From @AnneWaiguru

Honorable Senators,

Allow me to begin by expressing my gratitude to this honorable committee of senators for your time and passionate engagement in the various issues raised over the last two days in relation to the matter before us. You have kept an open mind as you interrogated the evidence brought before you both in support of allegations made or in the rebuttal against these allegations.

The responsibility now therefore lies upon this committee to determine whether the impeachment motion was the way to go in addressing the issues raised by the County Assembly.

Honorable Senators,

You can, however, having listened to the presentations made by the assembly, bear me witness that they mainly involved emotional and contradicting witness statements that were neither supported by any evidence nor fully substantiated by facts.

Case in point, you have heard evidence that there was no one Ksh. 50 million contract paid to Velocity Company, neither was there evidence of any invoice of Ksh. 30 million paid as passionately alleged by the MCAs.

You clearly heard that out of the Ksh. 10 Million shillings claimed to have been sent to my account, 4.6M was completely fictitious and nonexistent figures which was never sent to my account. Further, Honorable Senators, you heard that in two of them in which it was alleged that I invoiced the county and did not travel, the majority leader who is a key proponent of the motion was present in these trips and was even photographed as shown in our travel file submissions.

You heard one of the witnesses claim that our health facilities are dilapidated to the point of ALL of them being infested by snakes, this in contradiction to the national body, the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board and others who gave the hospital a clean bill of health. She cited lack of autoclave machines and incinerators which the members of the county assembly so graciously allocated budget in May last year and these were purchased and delivered.

Honorable Senators,

The county assembly has also failed to demonstrate to this committee how a public participation process on the impeachment was conducted at a time when there was a court order putting an injunction on the process due to Covid-19 and public interactions highly limited. The process therefore excluded the voice of a majority of Kirinyaga residents yet the matter at hand impacts on them. The public participation question puts to doubt the validity of the whole impeachment process.

My lawyers have dispelled the false allegations that formed the basis of my impeachment and we have seen that they are an affront to impeachment process as prescribed in the constitution. The issues raised could have indeed been clarified through routine inquiries.

The assembly has also failed to prove that any of the tenders mentioned in the impeachment motion were irregularly awarded or that the county incurred any financial loses as result of the said awards let alone proving how the Governor was conferred any personal benefit.

We have been able to table before this committee evidence on various correspondences between the county government and the county assembly and therefore dispelling the claims that the executive does not furnish the assembly with relevant information on implementation.

I reiterate that these kinds of falsehoods not only demean the legislative arm of the county government but are proof that the motion was only seeking to malign my name with an ulterior motive by the MCAs.

The assembly even failed to interrogate the public procurement procedures which could have duly informed them that it is within provisions of the law to purchase the governor’s vehicle from the manufacturer that supplies government vehicles under a framework contract!

Honorable Senators,

So far we have been treated to innuendos and trivialities that do not meet the threshold of gross violation of the constitution hence meriting an impeachment.

As I stated at the beginning of this hearing, this impeachment motion has consumed a lot of valuable time that could have been used to work for the people of Kirinyaga. The negative impact of this process cannot be underestimated.

I therefore call upon this committee to thoroughly scrutinize the evidence submitted here and disregard any unsubstantiated claims.

The precedence that this committee will set will be a point of reference in future impeachment processes and it is therefore expected that the decisions taken by this committee will not come back to haunt this house.

All eyes are on this committee to make decisions that are beyond reproach and will stand the test of time.

I urge the senate to ensure that the outcome of the proceedings will serve justice to the residents of Kirinyaga County who deserve every effort of the elected leaders in accomplishing the development agenda of the county.

In conclusion Honorable Senators,

Seeing as there is no evidence to substantiate the allegations brought against me, allow me to tell you why I am truly here.

As the elected Governor of my County, some National issues have fallen on my shoulders particularly those pertaining to the equitable and fair share of National resources, to the people of Kirinyaga.

This has meant taking political decisions including to support H.E the President in his BBI initiative which I believe is the interest of Kirinyaga and all of Kenya.

Honorable Senators, my stand has made me enemies with people of deep influence inside & outside my County which is a matter on public record, resulting in endless attacks on my person because of my support for BBI and the HANDSHAKE.

BUT

In the words of the famous Pan-Africanist Frank Fanon I have no regrets for: –

“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.

… To those that have conspired with these forces to wrongfully impeach me, I forgive you and say to you as I close in the words of the Great American Female Poet Maya Angelou .. “Kirinyaga people will forget what you said, they will even forget what you did but they will NEVER FORGET HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL” and neither will I. That notwithstanding – I forgive you.

Outside conspiracies visited on us with the help of a few local leaders has brought shame and humiliation to us at home. I pray that it should never be allowed to happen again

I Thank you