Nairobi News

Governor William Kabogo has finally bowed to pressure and moved the county’s headquarters back to Kiambu Town.

Mr Kabogo and his staff started using the offices, which have been under renovation, on Thursday last week.

The officials who have moved with him include County Secretary Fred Kitema, Youth and Sports executive Machel Waikenda, Wilson Maroa (Public Service) Esther Ndiran’gu (Education) and the staff in the communication department.

While making the announcement during a youth forum at the headquarters at the weekend, Governor Kabogo said other county executive committee members were operating from different sub-counties in the region.

MAKING NOISE

“We have already moved to Kiambu. Let the people who have been making noise over the issue to look for something else to talk about,” said Mr Kabogo, in reference to his critics.

However, the renovation work is not yet complete as the gate has not been fixed and landscaping has not been done.

Governor Kabogo has been operating from Thika Town where his administration had unilaterally transferred its officers, sparking an outrage.

Kiambu is the county’s gazetted headquarters but after being sworn in, Mr Kabogo declined to occupy the defunct Kiambu Municipal Council offices, which had been reserved for the governor citing their poor condition.

He moved to Thika Town and asked for six months to have the Kiambu offices renovated. However, the deadline elapsed in October 2013.

Since then, contradictory statements on when the county headquarters would be ready were given by the executive, raising questions over the governor’s willingness to shift base.

PROTESTS

The executive gave different timelimes that were never met, sparking protests from residents and leaders led Senator Kimani Wamatangi as well as Members of Parliament.

The county executive for Roads and Public Works Njeri Mburu told the county assembly that the original cost of the renovation was Sh38 million, but the figure had escalated to Sh45 million.

Senator Wamatangi had earlier sought a statement from the Senate Devolution Committee, demanding an explanation as to why the governor had not occupied the Kiambu offices.

“Mr Kabogo should relocate the head office from Thika to Kiambu before the end of August, failure to which I would use other constitutional means to resolve the issue,” he said.

At the same time, Members of Parliament had threatened to push for the impeachment of Governor Kabogo if he failed to move the Kiambu County headquarters from Thika.

Leaders Alice Ng’an’ga (Thika MP), Jude Njomo (Kiambu Town MP) Francis Waititu (Juja MP), John Kiragu (Limuru MP) and Kimani Ichung’wa (Kikuyu MP) and Mr Ferdinand Waititu (Kabete MP) said their pleas to Mr Kabogo to move had fallen on deaf ears.

They had vowed to collect signatures to send him home.

SOURCE: Daily Nation