Impeached Kericho Governor Mutai blames Speaker, says he manipulated votes to be next county boss

In his opening remarks at the Senate on Wednesday, August 27, Mutai claimed that the Speaker of the Kericho County Assembly sought his removal to take up the gubernatorial position for himself. 

He alleged that during his impeachment before the County Assembly, the Speaker altered the numbers to achieve the two-thirds threshold needed for his ouster. 

"What is happening in Kericho is a well-orchestrated political conspiracy to remove the governor. One is for political interest and expedition, because at the County Assembly we have a speaker whose interest is to be the Kericho governor," he remarked. 

"This is by impeaching the governor and probably along the way impeach the deputy governor and sit as both the governor and the deputy so that out of ten years he served as CEC Kericho in charge of finance and CEC in charge of roads will be able to execute what he never accomplished."

In the impeachment motion moved by Sigowet Ward MCA Kiprotich Rogony, the Governor was accused of misappropriation of public and donor funds and abuse of office, evidence that was revealed in an Ad Hoc Committee report. 

In particular, he was accused of allowing fictitious payments worth Ksh.85 million to contractors for works not done. 

Alluding to this, the governor questioned why the report was handed over to him after his impeachment motion was tabled before the County Assembly. 

He noted that a governor's role would be to punish the state officers involved in the scandal, but pointed out that the Kericho MCAs voted him out before he got the opportunity to take action. 

"The report on fictitious payment was handed to me by the County Assembly after they tabled my impeachment. On this recommendation, much of it including pictures of houses, the Committee had indicated that let the CEOs be punished by the Public Service Board but the impeachment had already been tabled before I got the report," Mutai noted. 

Mutai, who was impeached after 33 out of 47 MCAs voted him out, appealed to the Senators to review and argue all facts objectively to get the right outcome. 

The governor had previously survived a similar ouster in October 2024 after the Senate saved him.