Controversy has rocked Kiambu County after some leaders, recently elected to head alcohol drinks control committee claimed they have been shortchanged and their positions maliciously given to people ‘well known’ to governor Ferdinand Waititu.
Latestnewskenya.com has established that the positions required each ward across the county to have a representative who was to be elected by the people ‘in a broad day light.’
Speaking in Gatundu, they said that even after vying for various positions in an election that was done across the county on 26th March and won, different persons were confirmed to the positions and awarded certificates.
According to John Mwaura, one of the ‘people elected’ committee member in Githobokoni ward, Waititu awarded his top political campaigners disregarding the voice of Kiambu electorates who came out in large numbers and voted.
“There was no need for the governor to advertise the positions and demand that we campaign to be elected while he knew that he would shortchange and replace us with his campaigners who in fact did not vie for the positions. He has not only disreputed us but also compelled us to waste our resources during the campaigns,” lamented Mwaura.
They said that the will of the public did not prevail in the elections that were done in the 60 wards across the county.
Nicholas Wambu who was elected to represent Mang’u ward lamented that despite the positions being gazetted, Waititu unlawfully sneaked in ‘unqualified persons as a way of paying his political loyalists’.
He said that they have now opted to petition their grievances in a lawsuit and mobilize their supporters to conduct street protests until Waititu ousts those who were illegally given the positions.
Eli Njau who was nominated by Waititu to head Gatundu team decried that despite his age, the governor ‘took me for a ride’.
“My wife has been castigating me for using resources I would have used to pay for the school fees of my children to conduct campaigns. Despite winning in the heated elections and even after Waititu nominated me to head Gatundu team, I was surprisingly expelled and people who did not participate awarded. We have no faith in Waititu again if he could dare to play games with elders like me,” he said.
The leaders took issue with how the county was fighting alcoholism saying that goons hired to harass bar owners were paralyzing businesses.
They told Waititu to concentrate on other development agendas such as renovation of impassable feeder roads and sinking poultry farming.
Efforts to reach the county for a comment were futile as the governor; several accused MCA’s were unreachable.
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