President Ruto petitioned to dissolve Meru County Gov’t

A section of Meru residents has written to President William Ruto asking him to dissolve Meru County Government citing irreconcilable differences between Governor Kawira Mwangaza and Members of the County Assembly.

The nine Petitioners, registered voters of Meru County, say the situation in the county warrants its suspension citing numerous actions that are deemed to be against the common needs and interests of the citizens.

The fact that the area MCAs have voted twice to impeach the governor, and yet the county boss has found a way to remain in office, has made it difficult for the executive and legislature to work for the good of the residents.

“The Meru County Executive and the Meru County Assembly are operating at extremes and are clearly at loggerheads. The Meru County Government has irretrievably broken down and is completely dysfunctional,” they said in the letter to the head of state

They lamented that instead of the two entities; the County Executive and the County Assembly working together as one government, the two sides operate are two governments running parallel to each other; one under the Governor and another under the County Assembly Speaker Ayub Bundi Solomon.

The petitions also spoke of conflict of roles in the county with the Executive and the County Assembly competing on who implements projects.

“Members of the County Assembly have publicly declared that the Executive are their enemies and hence it is clear that both entities are operating parallel and are not working towards meeting the needs of the people of Meru,” they charged

They said the decision to dissolve the county should be made given that attempts to reconcile the Mwangaza and MCAs, including by the President himself, have proved futile.

“The people submit that for the success of a County government, both the Executive and the County Assembly must be able to conduct their functions under the law and work together effectively through cooperation and consultation failure to which the continued existence of the County government is of no use to the people and becomes a liability and hindrance to development,” they said

“The petitioners believe that there are exceptional circumstances within Meru County in terms of governance which would support the dissolution of the County Government. These exceptional circumstances are also elucidated in this petition,” they noted in the letter to the President, lamenting that the County Government of Meru has turned into a national shame and an object of ridicule.