Tana River leaders burry the hatchet, vow to work together to develop the county

Tana River leaders have vowed to work together to develop the county as opposed to wrangling and backstabbing that was witnessed in the last term from 2017 to 2022.

Governor Dhadho Godhana said that his first term was embroiled in unending wrangles with the County Assembly while the County Women Representative was always uncooperative.

Mr. Dhadho who took over from Tana River’s first Governor Hussein Dado in 2017 was also burdened with a Sh. 2.4 billion debt he inherited from his predecessor that has up to now not been settled.

The County politics also worked against him in the assembly since his party Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) had no single Member of County Assembly hence making him face a hostile legislature.

He however managed to convince them to work on his agenda but the County speaker Justin Nkaduda became an impediment forcing him to woo the MCAs to impeach him in 2019.

“We had a very successful but complex first term given that the county was rated as underperformed in the period 2013 to 2017. We had challenges in budgeting occasioned by the huge debt we had and a divided focuses between us and the assembly and differences of communities and among leaders, between me and my deputy, the women representative, the county assembly and the speaker and push and pull among different groups of society but we put in mechanisms to bring people together,” he said.

Mr. Dhadho fell out with his deputy Kea Batuyu and in his second term he replaced him with Mahadh Ali Loka.

On his part, senator Danson Mungatana said that the current leadership was about cohesiveness and development and assured residents that they will work together to develop the County.

“I have had a meeting with all 15 MCAs and we are going to work together with the executive. The county assembly is going to work with the executive and one third of the MCAs managed to get re- elected. The past where the speaker was fighting MCAs and also fighting the governor, the governor fighting the speaker and a confused senator has come to an end and people are going to hear from Tana River again,” he assured.

He said his predecessor never pushed a bill in the senate and also appealed to President William Ruto to appoint a cabinet secretary from the area.

Embattled former speaker Justin Nkaduda who is seeking to be elected again said that his impeachment was not procedural arguing that the infighting among leaders was the reason behind MCAs impeaching him.

He called on the current leadership to unite so that they can offer services to residents.

“My impeachment was a witch hunt since the MCAs and Governor did not want to offer good services to residents. I urge residents to put aside their tribal affiliation and help leaders work,” he said.