Why

In fact the declining popularity of Wakujaa should serve as the writing on the wall that come 2027 voters in the county will be shopping around for a replacement.

The best he can do to retain his dignity is to back down in the next polls after serving his constitutional five years or face the humiliation his two other predecessors have faced at the ballot.

“Personally, I don’t think governor Mwadime has ambitions of running for a second term. But as it usually happens, he may yield to pressure from his handlers and those benefitting from his office , but the outcome may not be pleasant for him,” said a lawyer who had been close to the governor’s campaign machinery.

This notwithstanding, bringing a watertight impeachment case against the governor could be a tall order unless the MCAs do their homework well and perform serious oversight on the executive , something they have not being doing, save useless foreign benchmarking trips.

His Meru counterpart Kawira Mwangaza, also an independent governor, tasted the wrath of her MCAs but the senate saved her neck after the impeachment case was thrown out for not meeting the required threshold.

Mwangaza had been accused of among other things, giving her so-called first husband Murega Baichu two county jobs as the patron of the Meru Youth Service and Meru Hustlers Ambassador.

It’s alleged that the county first lady is the one micromanaging the governor alongside his deputy Christie Kilalo a ruthlessly ambitious politician who has lost the Voi parliamentary seat and Ngolia ward seat twice in a row.

Wrong advice on advisors

People critical to the Wakujaa administration have also voiced concern over the large number of “advisors” at the governor’s beck and call. Apart from the economic and political advisors , Mwadime later added five other advisors, who , according to some residents, are just liabilities draining county coffers with nothing tangible to offer.

These are Water, hygiene sanitation and health, Cohesion, peace building and conflict resolution, Lands and governance and Blue economy and investment advisors.

While a peace and reconciliation advisor could be relevant in North Rift counties which are experiencing volatile conflicts and banditry the same is uncalled for in Taita-Taveta county and whoever advised Mwadime to create such a post shot himself in the foot.

Secondly, an advisor on lands is unimportant considering that already there is a CECM and chief officer for lands.

In fact governor Mwadime can as well do away with the economic and political advisors who are now on forced leave after they were implicated in mismanaging funds for the WW1 commemoration event.

These posts were created by the Council of Governors but a governor is under no legal obligation to have them and might as well do away with them if he wants to

(See related opinion piece on page 3)