Newly elected Kiambu County Woman Representative Gathoni Wa Muchomba is staring at impeachment before taking office.
Gathoni came under fire after she asked for pay rise even before taking the oath of office.
Speaking on NTV on Wednesday, Gathoni said that she should be honored with salary increment for winning the highly contested seat.
”If you want Wa Muchomba to look decent like a woman rep, surely, you must pay me well so I can look decent and behave decently, and represent my people steadily” Gathoni told Trevor Ombija during the interview.
Gathoni said she is very uncomfortable with SRC’s move to slash lawmakers salaries, saying it only demotivates people from doing what they would have loved to do best.
”I believe if you want your people to perform, pay them well and let them feel appreciated and they’ll give you the best”
SRC has proposed to slash mileage and sitting allowances for lawmakers; a move that Gathoni is up in arms against saying it is same as getting paid overtime, although the leaders’ committees that the leaders get paid for sitting in are not overtimes.
”Let’s not play a hide and seek game, I want to be paid well. I fought it out to be a member of parliament, I campaigned, I used my resources, I want to be paid well. I want to be honored for who I am and for what I have been able to achieve” charged Gathoni.
As soon as the interview aired, Kiambu residents were already expressing their disappointment with the lawmaker. Gathoni was trending on social media by Friday morning, with the majority calling for her impeachment.
By Friday evening, forms collecting signatures were making rounds across Kiambu aimed at sending the lawmaker home barely two weeks after she was elected.
She has since been nicknamed ”Gathoni wa Micaara” which loosely translates to Gathoni the salary lady.
Gathoni spent the better part of Thursday working on damage control following her comments. She appeared on Citizen TV where she offered her apology to the people of Kiambu for her misplaced priorities.
She also posted a press statement on her official Facebook account extending the apology.
”I will not fail your trust on me and my party. After deep soul searching and as a God fearing servant-leader, I realize that I have let down the people who put their faith in me, and I will do everything in my power to learn from this regrettable mistake and to gain back their trust” read part of the statement.
Despite her apology, the forms collecting signatures for her impeachment gained momentum as people uploaded them on social media for download, with directions on where to drop them in each town.
”Shame Shame! Disgusting greed! How far are the forms ..we need to uproot and make strong statements against such for Kenya to be better”. Said one Kiambu resident asking for impeachment forms.
”Were you not the one who was live on tv?? My friend, you need serious nurturing in your new political carreer..this is not a media house where you could say anything anywhere” read another comment under her live apology video.
A telegram channel was created to spearhead the impeachment process. The channel, https://telegram.me/minjihohu had attracted over 1,000 members by Thursday afternoon coordinating the process across Kiambu county.
Unconfirmed reports from coordinators on social media said that over 400k signatures had been collected by Thursday afternoon.
By Jamhuri News reporter
