Granton Graham Samboja is a Kenyan politician and media executive who served as the second governor of Taita Taveta County from 2017 to 2022. He is a member of the Jubilee Party of Kenya. Samboja capitalized on his background in the media and his links with President Uhuru Kenyatta to get into politics. His education background remains the subject of controversy.
Early life
Granton Samboja is of Taita ethnicity, with his rural origins being the Werugha area of Taita Taveta County in Kenya. Werugha sits among the peaks of the Taita Hills. Samboja's education background is the subject of controversy, but an online news outlet reports that he attended the state-owned Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC).
Media career
Samboja joined the Royal Media Services on completing his studies at KIMC. He eventually left to start Milele FM. Records indicate Milele FM was founded in 2008. In addition to being the founder of Milele FM, Samboja owns Anguo FM, a Taita language radio station.
Political life
Granton Samboja is said to be close friends with President Uhuru Kenyatta. It was therefore not surprising when, in April 2015, the president appointed Samboja as chairman of the Coast Water Services Board. Samboja resigned in February 2017 to venture into active politics.
Governor of Taita Taveta County
Granton Samboja was elected the second governor of Taita Taveta county during the 2017 general elections held on 8 August that year. He was sworn into office on 21 August 2017 at an inauguration ceremony where his predecessor John Mruttu, was present.
Controversy over academic qualifications
As soon as Governor Samboja was inaugurated, controversies emerged over whether he had a university degree. Electoral law as applied in the 2017 general elections explicitly stated that a candidate for governor should have had a degree from a university recognized in Kenya. Court cases were filed in both Nairobi and Mombasa seeking to nullify Samboja's election on grounds that he did not have a university degree. During court proceedings, copies of academic certificates the governor claimed he had earned from Kenyatta University were declared fake. The university submitted an affidavit stating that Samboja, “had not applied for, obtained admission or attended the institution as a student for a certificate, diploma and degree in Project Management, Human Resource Management and Bachelor of Commerce respectively.” The court cases eventually fizzled out and Samboja remained in office.
Petition to dissolve the county assembly
In July 2019, Governor Granton Samboja initiated a petition to have President Uhuru Kenyatta dissolve the county assembly of Taita Taveta. Samboja was angered by a disagreement with the county assembly over allocations totalling 5.3 billion Kenya Shillings for the 2019/2020 budget. Samboja accused members of the county assembly of unilaterally allocating millions of shillings to their electoral wards. On its part, the county assembly accused Samboja of allocating county government funds to non-crucial functions.
In October 2019, Samboja's petition was handed over to President Uhuru Kenyatta who then forwarded it to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for verification of the petitioners’ signatures. Under the law, IEBC had to confirm if the signatures met the legal threshold that a petition to dissolve the county assembly be supported by at least 10% of registered voters in the county. In this particular case, the petition needed at least 15,500 verified signatures because the total number of registered voters in Taita Taveta County was 155,000. On 6 November 2019, IEBC announced that Samboja's petition had the support of 21,861 registered voters, confirming that it had met the required threshold. The governor's supporters saw this as a victory.
Impeachment by the County Assembly
As Governor Samboja carried out his plan to dissolve the county assembly, the members of the assembly were plotting a counter-move: impeaching the governor. The plot came to a fruition on October 9, 2019 when 30 out of 33 members of the county assembly (MCAs) voted to impeach Samboja.