Governor Kawira Mwangaza victory against her first impeachment came fast and furious; with many casualties falling by the wayside as winners took home their bounty.
This was after Meru Members of County Assembly, MCAs, came out on Monday, February 20 to announce a bombshell truce with Governor Kawira Mwangaza. Coming when residents were slowly losing hope for a deal, it was mostly welcome.
The animated hugs and claps that escorted the joint statement were refreshing to those who had hoped for an end to five months of ugly political battles between the two divides.
While the Nderitu Gachagua-led intervention had failed to reach any deal, an MCAs led intervention in Meru hastily crafted to secure what was at stake at home carried the day, with Meru Woman Representative, Kailemeia Karambu, only witnessing it.
As the declaration was being read, nine Meru Members of Parliament who had earlier attempted to hijack the process were in pain just like the County Senator Kathuri Murungi whose hidden hand was seen in the impeachment process. Though he acted states manly, those close to him say he wished for a Kawira Mwangaza loss.
In a span of weeks, Senator Murungi suffered a terrible blow that has left him a lone ranger of Meru politics at the time.
First was impeachment motion where Governor Mwangaza won.
The loss was all written on Kathuri’s face. His conciliatory tone when he rose to speak in Senate following the exoneration of the Governor also seemed to betray his stand.
The Intrigues
Immediately Governor Mwangaza was sworn in, she was met by a whirlwind of interests she probably didn’t expect.
On one side was the Munya-Mpuru axis that helped her campaign. Then the Linturi-Kathuri wing that was keen to welcome the Governor into the Kenya Kwanza Coalition following President William Ruto’s win.
In between were Kiraitu Murungi with his Mbus numbers in the County Assembly and Meru members of Parliament who considered Kawira as incapable of running county affairs without their help.
In the first weeks of Kawira administration, guests trooped to the house of Meru leadership, photos shared publicly with a promise of good working relations with the leaders.
As this went on, MCAs were also keen on having their independence away from party lines. Behind the scenes, some of the ward reps cut secret deals with the new administration, to boost their political visibility in their wards.
But these were threw into a spin post inauguration.
At the Governor’s swearing-in ceremony, Mr Linturi and the UDA brigade and Mpuru Aburi and Munya attended to take their position in the new government.
While Linturi, who had opposed Kawira in the General Election, wasn’t initially to attend initially, his advisers felt his absence would deny him a chance to start building his image as the Meru kingpin.
There was also fear among the Linturi team that Mama would opt to work with Peter Munya and Mpuru Aburi, who had played a key role to ensure Kawira’s win.
Kawira Mwangaza The Lone Range
But Ms Faith Kawira, seen as a lone ranger in the game, wasn’t going to yield power that easily.
With advice, she starting creating her own political path, in disregard for the two axis plus the MCAs, something that easily united the Meru political class against the governor.
Both the UDA team and the Kiraitu-led Mbus starting plotting against Mama.
To boost their chances, the different camps fronted their men in the race for Speakership, with Munya supporting Ayub Bundi and Mpuru Aburi rallying MCAs behind his son Rodgers Kipembe Mpuru. Ayub only won by one vote in a runoff against Kipembe.
Two two sides spent enough resources, with Kiraitu only hoping to ride on his party numbers in the assembly to get the position for Wakili Maranya, something that flopped.
Former Senator Linturi decided not to invest in the race as he argued it wasn’t worth his attention.
When MCAs started to feel like deals they cut with the governor were being dishoured, their quickly plotted to frustrate the governor. This was backed by other political players behind the scenes, who also felt the governor was sharing the county cake without their involvement.
Mithika Linturi who is said to have sought intervention of President William Ruto to ensure the impeachment went through, found it hard.
The president is said to have dismissed the idea. For starters, Mr Ruto’s relationship with Kawira stretch way back to their URP party days when Kawira was one of the few party officials from the mountain.
Besides their working relations, the president may have felt he wasn’t going to be fully in control of things, especially now that the MCAs were totally in defiance of party positions as was displayed twice, first during the selection of the Speaker and secondly during the impeachment.
The unquestionable loyalty displayed by the Deputy Governor, Rev Mutuma M’Ithinkia also meant replacing Kawira with the man of God wasn’t going to change anything as she would continue pulling the strings behind the scene.
Infact, Mutuma was at the time overheard saying that he would allow Kawira to led from behide the scene, something that alarmed Kawira’s opponents.
But MPs and other wheeler dealers weren’t going to lose without a fight.
The Gachagua Factor
When the impeachment flopped, Members of Parliament through Deputy President Gachagua still insisted on a ‘reconciliation’ mission.
The leaders wanted a power sharing deal, something Mama Kawira successfully fought.
When Deputy President realized the mess he was getting into, he tossed the ball to Meru Woman Representative Ms Kailemia.
That wasn’t meant to achieve anything as Kailemia, a Meru political greenhorn, wasn’t going to convince anyone to talks where Gachagua had failed.
On the other side were MCAs who had been largely sidelined by the Nairobi talks. To remain relevant, they reassembled.
First, the representatives wanted to save face following the fall of their impeachment motion at the Senate.
They also wanted to get ward fund, cash committed to projects at the ward level, for political relevance.
To circumvent the red tape, MCAs invited Madam Kailemia to broker a meeting with the Governor. At this point they had a proposal on the table.
Within minutes, the two sides were ready to make their deal public, in total disregard for the Nairobi process and MPs.
The bursary committees that the governor had formed were to be reconstituted in consultations with the MCAs, the Ward Fund was back.
There was also a deal to ensure both sides looked good and that public wrangles between the two sides stop.
With the deal, the biggest losers were Kathuri Murungi, who was accused of being too coy when he had the resources to fund MCAs at the Senate but didn’t.
He is the Deputy Speaker at Senate.
For Linturi, he was seen as having brought Ruto into the picture. He was also the face of shuttle diplomacy that saved Kawira’s political seat, something that earned him some considerable clout and an appointment for his running mate Linda Kiome as Kawira’s Chief legal advisor.
Through DM Kiogora, former Governor Kiraitu also got some of his Chief Officers retained by Mama plus one of his CEC.
Munya also got his ally Joel Mutie appointed.
Mpuru Aburi left the process seriously bruised.
He immediately turned a court jester, trying to attract Ruto’s eye.
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