Kiambu voter wants court to quash DG Nyoro’s decision to reshuffle cabinet

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A Kiambu County voter has moved to court to challenge the decision by Deputy Governor James Nyoro to reshuffle the county government cabinet.

Benard Chege Mburu wants the court to quash the purported reshuffle on grounds that Nyoro has no powers to reshuffle the County Executive County Members.

He argues that Nyoro has not been appointed as acting Kiambu governor under the law. He says Article 179(5) of the constitution allows a deputy governor to exercise the powers of the Governor in their absence, but section 30(4) and (5) of the County Government Act in word and spirit prohibits the DG from re-organizing or disturbing the structure of the County Government.

Nyoro’s actions are as a result of the arrest and prosecution of his boss governor Ferdinand Waititu over graft whereby the court barred him from setting foot in his office as he is likely to interfere with witnesses.

The applicant further avers that on 6th September 2019, the DG published a notice in the Kenya Gazette purporting to reshuffle of the County Executive Committee Members in Charge of Finance and economic planning and that of Trade, Tourism, Cooperatives and Enterprise Development by swapping them.

According to Chege, the Kiambu County lawyer gave an advisory on 20th August this year stating that the DG did not have powers to reshuffle County Executive Committee members.

It is his submission that Nyoro is purporting to exercise powers that he does not have in law and the unlawful acts are a recipe for untold chaos in Kiambu County as they do not have the blessings of the Governor who is likely to revise them immediately or in future.

Chege says that it is in the public domain that the DG fell out with the Governor and his impugned action is informed by malice, ago and vendetta

Chege argue that the impugned decision if allowed to the stand would set a dangerous precedent as the deputy governors would usurp the authority of governors every time the later are either sick or temporality away and seek to replace the appointees of the governors or restructure the County Government only for the governors to subsequently reverse such acts.

Apart from Nyoro, other respondents in the matter are Attorney General, Governor Ferdinand Waititu, CECs Francis Njenga and Wilson Kangethe as Interested parties