A section of Kilifi residents have accused Members of County Assembly (MCAs) of Kilifi over tabling a motion of impeachment against assembly speaker Teddy Mwambire terming the move as a political witchhunt.

Led by the chairman of the Kilifi Accountability Assembly 003 Patriots Charles Chigiri, the residents wondered why the MCAs were in a frenzy to impeach Mwambire without any meaningful probe.

“We are wondering as a people why the MCAs are focused on ensuring that they impeach the speaker yet we have a lot of meaningful development matters they need to concentrate on. We are warning any MCA who will participate in that impeachment that they will be voted out in 2027,” said Chigiri.

Already, 42 MCAs have signed the petition that among the grounds raised against Mwambire are incompetence, gross misconduct, gross violation of the constitution, abuse of office and him being the chairman of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party in Kilifi County.

They said that if the impeachment sails through, they will also move to court to demand the resignation or impeachment of National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula and his senate counterpart Amason Kingi for being party leaders of Ford Kenya and Pamoja African Alliance (PAA) parties respectively.

“If they succeed in impeaching the assembly speaker, I will personally move to court to seek interpretation so that the National Assembly speaker Moses Wetangula and his senate counterpart are sent home because they are party leaders of Ford Kenya and PAA respectively,” added Chigiri.

Alex Kalama, a resident of Dabaso ward warned that the MCAs behind the motion were intimidating those opposing it with threats of being starved of development funds from the Gideon Mung’aro led administration hence many signed the petition to please the mover.

“The MCAs are being intimidated by some MPs who are benefitting from county tenders and the governor and that is why the signatures to remove Mwambire are growing each day, we are cautioning those MCAs that they risked being dumped after that mission is over,” said Kalama.

Shockingly, the mover of the motion, Tezo ward MCA and minority leader at the assembly Thomas Chengo is a member of PAA party that is led by Kingi who tabled it on Monday last week where it garnered 32 signatures but the number of signatures has risen to 42.

The move is said to have angered Kingi whose frantic efforts to implore on Chengo to drop the motion seem to have failed as he is currently an ally of Governor Gideon Mung’aro.

In the motion, the Pamoja African Alliance (PAA) MCA seeks to probe the conduct of the speaker arguing that the speaker has been undermining the roles of the county assembly committees and has alleged failure to observe procedural fairness.

The MCA argued that the speaker erred when he disbanded the County Budget and Appropriations Committee in May and ordered the formation of a whole-house committee without engaging the members involved.

”Suspending the Kilifi County Programme Based Budget Estimates FY 2025/2026 without engaging the members reeks of gross misconduct, incompetence and amounts to gross violation of the Constitution of Kenya,” he said.

He added that the speaker’s actions were geared towards scuttling the budget-making process and ultimately paralyzing the Kilifi county government.

Chengo also argued that by holding the office of the chairperson of the Kilifi County Co-ordinating Committee of the ODM party, the speaker compromises the political neutrality of the office of the speaker of the county assembly as opposed to the Leadership and Integrity Act.

”The speaker unsuccessfully vied for the position of chairperson in the Ganze subcounty in the just concluded ODM grassroots elections, where he lost to Mr George Fondo,” he noted. Chengo said that he has support from MCAs who believe that the speaker should be impeached, as he was serving his personal interests at the assembly.

At least one-third of the 51 MCAs need to sign the petition for the impeachment motion to be approved for debate.

The county assembly deputy speaker Naftal Kombo has appointed five members in the ad hoc committee to investigate and inquire into the claims outlined in the motion that seeks a resolution for the removal of the speaker and table a report before the county assembly within 14 days.

The MCAs selected for the ad hoc committee are Twahir Abdul Karim, Filster Auma Meso, Kantona Mae Mwadena, Hassan Said, and Ummi Mohammed.

”Section 11C of the County Government Act 2012 stipulates that the speaker shall not perform any of the functions of the office of the speaker pending the resolution of the county assembly impeachment motion,” said the deputy speaker.

Speaking to the Standard, Mwambire said he was committed to serving the people, and the allegations tabled against him were baseless and politically motivated.

”The price tag and threats that have been put on my head for this exercise by my detractors are unbelievable. There is more than meets the eye in this calculated move. Let the public be very vigilant or else we may end up regretting. I have been silent for a while for a reason you will come to learn with time,” said Mwambire.

Mwambire said that some people had advised him to resign but he instead chose to stand firm for the benefit of the people.

Kilifi North MP Owen Baya, who has been supporting Mwambire’s impeachment, said the speaker has used the position for his political gains.

A nominated MCA, Grace Mwangi, said that the motion was not for the benefit of the locals but a few politicians, saying she will not support it.