Change of guard at Nyahururu Town hall

Mayor Nduhiu (right and his Deputy, Jane)

BY HOME NEWS TEAM

Councillor Timothy Nduhiu Beru, the elected councillor for Hospital Ward who served as deputy mayor in the previous council, is the new mayor of Nyahururu.
  Nduhiu, who will serve for just about eight months - the remaining term for the present council - was elected to the hot civic seat on Friday, July 8, by the local eight councillors during one of the most peaceful and low key such elections ever held in the municipality in the recent past.
  He replaces Peter Thiari Waweru, the elected councillor for the expansive Uaso Narok ward, who did not contest the seat, and who had replaced the once no-nonsense and powerful mayor John Muritu Karumba, who used to be both respected and feared by staff and colleagues if not the town dwellers.
   According to Nyahururu old timers, Thiari is likely to be remembered as the most sober, educated, youthful and down-to-earth mayors that Nyahururu ever had.
   Muritu, whose name was proposed and seconded during the election, declined, saying he preferred the much younger Nduhiu, who he later described as “like my own son”.
  “Hii ni kijana yangu. Ni rika ya kijana yangu. Nitamshika mkono na kumsaidia’ (This is my son. He is my son’s age-mate. I’ll show him the way and support him), said Muritu in his address to wananchi in the gallery, councillors, council workers and senior government officials who witnessed the elections. He was elected the new chairman of the Finance, Staff and General Purposes committee.
   The new Deputy Mayor is Jane Runanu, who replaces her nominated colleague Irene Wachuka.
  Congratulating his successor, Thiari said that the achievement and shortcoming that had been witnessed during his tenure reflected as much collective responsibility as the councillors had accorded him.
  He promised to support the new mayor to the hilt, and hinted that he would run for the seat in the next general elections.
  Nduhiu acknowledged that every councillor was fit to be mayor, and thanked his colleagues for the confidence they had displayed in him.
  He said that with a population of more than 150,000 people, the municipality needed a harmonious council in order to deliver services and develop the area.
  He thanked the local police for enhancing security, and asked the council’s chief officers to implement within the set time-lines the projects and  the sound policies made by the council.
  The elections for the committee chair people were as follows: Thiari: Audit,  Wachuka: Social Services, Gicheru: Environment, Patrick Thuo: Public Health and Water, and Peter Irungu: Town Planning.