Alfred Mutua

Alfred Nganga Mutua (born 22 August 1970) is a Kenyan politician who is the governor of Machakos County. Mutua was the Kenyan government spokesman before resigning in 2012 to run for the office of Machakos County Governor.

Dr Alfred Nganga Mutua
1st Governor of Machakos
Assumed office
27 March 2013
DeputyFrancis Maliti
Preceded byvarious mayors and council chairmen
Personal details
Born (1970-08-22) 22 August 1970
Machakos, Kenya
NationalityKenyan
Political partyMaendeleo Chap Chap
Alma materWhitworth College (BA)
EWU (MSc)
UWS (PhD)

Early life and education

Mutua was born in Masii, then a part of Machakos District in Kenya's Eastern Province. He was educated at Dagoretti High School (O level) and at Jamhuri High School (A level).

Civil servant

Government spokesperson and public communications secretary

Mutua was appointed the first official government spokesperson of Kenya in June 2004 by then President Mwai Kibaki. He served in that capacity until 3 September 2012. He was also the public communications secretary and head of the Office of Public Communications in the Office of the President. He also ran a Nairobi beautification program which included beautifying Uhuru Highway, repainting zebra crossings, installation of street CCTVs and setting up a building addressing system in Nairobi CBD.[1][2][3]

Political career

Mutua became the first governor of Machakos County, which is one of the 47 counties established under the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 and was sworn in on 27 March 2013. He was elected on a Wiper Democratic Movement Party ticket alongside Mr. Bernard Kiala as his Deputy Governor.

In August 2016, Mutua formerly launched a political party called Maendeleo Chap Chap Party.[4][5] This was a culmination of several months of speculation[6][7][8] among the Kenyan media and general public that Mutua had abandoned Wiper Democratic Movement – the party that had sponsored him for his election as Machakos Governor in 2013. Mutua's action of launching and supporting a political party other than the one that sponsored him was considered controversial. He was expected to vacate office and seek a fresh mandate as Machakos County Governor; being sponsored by his new political party in line with Kenyan electoral laws. When Mutua did not vacate office to seek fresh re-election, Wiper Democratic Movement Party's disciplinary committee found him culpable of launching and supporting another political party. The disciplinary committee deemed him to have resigned from the party.[9][10]

In November 2016, a notice to impeach Mutua[11][12] was filed in the Machakos County Assembly by a member Mr. Stephen Muthuka. This was after the motion notice was signed by 46 out of 59 Machakos county assembly members – meeting the two thirds threshold for an impeachment motion to progress.[13] Included among the reasons for the impeachment motion were alleged breach[14] of the Kenyan constitution, procurement laws and devolution laws.

Several days before Mutua's impeachment motion at the Machakos County Assembly, over half of the assembly's 59 members travelled out of the country in what was considered to be a tactical move for scuttling the impeachment process.[15][16] In the absence of 32 members of the county assembly, the impeachment motion was debated[17] with Mutua being represented by his lawyer. When the final vote was taken 26 out of 27 members of the assembly voted to impeach Mutua.[18][19] This however was too few votes to legally impeach Mutua as Governor of Machakos County since the threshold of 40 members of the county assembly voting in favor of the motion was not attained.

2017 gubernatorial election

Mutua contested the Machakos County Governor position for a second term at the 2017 general election against Wavinya Ndeti and his former Deputy – Bernard Kiala. Mutua was declared winner amid claims of election rigging. This resulted in a protracted election petition process that saw high court judge Aggrey Muchelule initially annul Mutua's election.[20] In June 2018, The court of appeal bench comprising judges W. Ouko, M. Warsame, and S. Gatembu Kairu nullified[21] the election of Alfred Mutua. Subsequently, Alfred Mutua contested the ruling of the Court of Appeal at the Supreme court. This legal contest was considered an epic battle at the Kenyan apex court.[22] The Supreme Court of Kenya would later, on 21 December 2018, overturn the Court of Appeal ruling to reinstate Mutua's gubernatorial election win.[23]

Stewardship of public funds

Though Mutua's stewardship of public funds as Governor for Machakos County saw the Auditor General raise numerous queries on the propriety of public expenditure throughout his first term, it turned out that his strategy of fiscal management was one of the best in the government.[24][25][26][27] For example, in 2014, he chose to purchase second hand vans and retrofitted them into ambulances which enabled him to have 120 ambulances at the cost of a few new ones.[28] This got him into trouble with the Auditor General, but was a big win for Machakos residents who got at least one ambulance in every location.[29]

In 2015, 2019 and 2020, Mutua was ranked the best performing governor in Kenya.[30][31][32] In 2015, a survey carried out to measure the successes of county government in satisfying their constituents also ranked Mutua's Machakos the best.[33]

References
  1. "Makeover seeks to restore Nairobi's green status". Business Daily.
  2. "Cost effective ideas to beautify the city". The Standard.
  3. "ALFRED MUTUA: IMPROVEMENT OF NAIROBI IMAGE & SECURITY: LAUNCH OF NAIROBI FACELIFT PROGRAM". YouTube. 10 July 2009.
  4. "Mutua waves Wiper goodbye". Daily Nation.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Governor Mutua shells out millions to launch 'Maendeleo Chap Chap' on live TV". Nairobi News.
  7. "Governor Mutua under fire for launching Maendeleo Chap Chap". Citizentv.co.ke.
  8. "Mutua's Maendeleo Chap Chap could be political party, after all". hivisasa.com.
  9. "Mutua kicked out of Kalonzo's Wiper". Daily Nation.
  10. "Governor Mutua, four MPs partyless as Wiper kicks them out". Citizentv.co.ke.
  11. "Machakos MCA files notice of motion to impeach Governor Mutua". The Star.
  12. Mulwa, Erastus M. "MCA seeks to have Governor Mutua impeached over graft claims". The Standard.
  13. "46 Machakos MCAs sign motion to impeach Governor Mutua". Nairobi News.
  14. "Notice to impeach Alfred Mutua filed". Daily Nation.
  15. Mulwa, Erastus. "Quorum hitch feared in Governor Alfred Mutua removal bid". The Standard.
  16. "31 reps in Tanzania, scuttling bid to sack Mutua but debate opens". The Star.
  17. "MCAs debate Mutua ouster motion". Daily Nation.
  18. Mulwa, Erastus M. "Quorum hitch saves Governor Mutua from impeachment". The Standard.
  19. "MCAs fail to raise 2/3rds majority to impeach Machakos governor Mutua". YouTube. 23 November 2016.
  20. "Machakos Governor Mutua's re-election upheld". Citizentv.co.ke.
  21. "Election Petition Appeal 8 of 2018 – Kenya Law". kenyalaw.org. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  22. Kilonzo, Kethi. "Epic battle at the Supreme Court â€" Mutua vs Wavinya". The Standard.
  23. "Supreme Court upholds Mutua's win – VIDEO". Nation.co.ke.
  24. Report of the Auditor General on The Financial Statements of County Executive of Machakos for the Year Ended 30 June 2016. Nairobi: Auditor General's Office. 2018.
  25. Report of the Auditor General on The Financial Statements of County Executive of Machakos for the Year Ended 30 June 2015. Nairobi: Auditor General's Office. 2016.
  26. Report of the Auditor General on The Financial Statements of County Executive of Machakos for the Year Ended 30 June 2014. Nairobi: Auditor General's Office. 2015.
  27. Report of the Auditor General on The Financial Statements of Machakos County Government and its defunct local authorities for the Year Ended 30 June 2013. Nairobi: Auditor General's Office. 2014.
  28. "Governor Mutua unveils ambulances for Machakos county". Group Kenya.
  29. "Alfred Mutua: Paradox of governor in sleaze list 'for a just cause'". Daily Nation. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  30. "List Of Excellence, Top County Governments and Their Governors Named". Kenyans.co.ke. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  31. "Machakos development record is not magic says Governor Mutua". Monitor. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  32. "New report reveals best and worst performing governors". Citizen TV Online. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  33. "New survey reveals the top 15 counties where citizens are happiest". Nation Online. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
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