Governor Kawira Mwangaza makes triumphant return to Meru after impeachment flop

Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza on Friday returned home a triumphant woman having survived the second bid to remove her from office by impeachment in just under a year.

The Governor crossed River Kathita at Meru town entrance on foot, and a jubilant crowd welcomed her. During her Impeachment process, it was said once that she crosses River Kathita to the Senate, she would not cross it again back to Meru as Governor.

It was almost as symbolic as the triumphant entry of Jesus to Jerusalem, an allusion of the home town where he had been rejected. However, in this incident, Mwangaza was coming back home to serve her people.

During her stopovers across Meru town, Governor Mwangaza tendered an apology to those she might have wronged, while publicly forgiving anyone who might have wronged her.

She requested for peace and unity among the Meru community, asking every Leader to come together to develop the county.

The Meru County boss emerged victorious after a majority of the 47 Senators failed to uphold any of the seven charges cited against her by the County Assembly that voted unanimously to eject her from office.

She was accused of misappropriating county resources, nepotism and unethical practices, bullying and vilifying other leaders, usurping her statutory powers, contempt of court, illegally naming a public road after her husband and contempt of the Meru County Assembly.

Making her final submissions before the legislators cast their votes on her fate, a low-spirited Mwangaza regretted her conduct towards the Members of the County Assembly, MPs and Senators in turn asking them for forgiveness.

“I pray to God to give me more energy and grace…na Mungu anipe kuvumilia kwingi to see the people of Meru happy. The Members of Parliament, our dear Deputy Senator of this House, the MCAs, Deputy Speaker…if I have wronged anyone of you, forgive me,” she said.

"I was elected as an independent Governor, I know I need MCAs. I have tried my best and still continue to try my best to see that I work with everyone. No one is an angel; I am not an angel each and every one of us has our his or her own weaknesses. It is my prayer to God that the weaknesses that they may have, God will help me so that as we work together as a team and make Meru people happy."

She further pleaded: "Thank you and I pray that you give me a second chance."

After a two-day-long hearing of the impeachment case against her, the Senators took the crucial vote at around midnight on Wednesday, voting on each of the seven counts levelled against Governor Mwangaza.

She returns to Meru having been given a new lease of life in the county after the Senators dismissed all the charges in a vote.