Alfred Mutua

Dr 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 to run for the office of County Governor.

He was born in Masii, Machakos County and is married with several children. He has lived, studied and worked in Kenya, USA, Australia and the United Arab Emirates and has been a business man, lecturer, civil servant and politician. In 2014, he was involved in a legal tussle^[1] over custody of their children with his estranged wife Josephine Thitu Maundu.

Education

He was educated at Dagoretti High School (O level) and at Jamhuri High School (A level). He obtained his BA in Journalism from Whitworth College in the United States and his MSc in Communication from Eastern Washington University. He received his doctorate in communication and media from the University of Western Sydney in Australia.

Civil servant

Political career

Mutua became the first governor of Machakos County, which is one of the 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.^[10][11] This was a culmination of several months of speculation^[12][13][14] 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.^[15][16]

In November 2016, a notice to impeach Governor Mutua^[17][18] 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.^[19] Included among the reasons for the impeachment motion were alleged breach^[20] 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.^[21][22] In the absence of 32 members of the county assembly, the impeachment motion was debated^[23] 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.^[24][25] 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.

On June 10 2017 reports came up that he never formally resign from Wiper Democratic Movement before forming his Maendeleo Chap Chap Party. This was a day after an IEBC Tribunal nullified the candidature of his main challenger for the 2017 mid term election.

The High Court reinstated Wavinya Ndeti as a candidate in the general election.

Alfred went on winning a second term in office.

References

External links

• Official website
• Rough journey to the media spotlight