Supreme Court Confirms Sonko's Impeachment as Nairobi Governor
Kenya's top court threw out Sonko's appeal on grounds...
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Former Nairobi governor, Mike Mbuvi Sonko has been handed a major blow after the Supreme Court upheld decisions by the High Court and the Court of Appeal affirming his impeachment.
Kenya's top court threw out Sonko's appeal on grounds that it lacked jurisdiction to determine it.
According to the court, the impeachment proceedings before the County Assembly and the Senate were properly conducted in accordance with Article 181 of the Constitution, Section 33 of the County Governments Act and Standing Orders of the Assembly and the Senate.
The ruling means he will not be able to contest for the Mombasa gubernatorial seat, having been cleared by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) the previous day.
The Supreme Court touched on seven issues that eventually led to the dismissal of the appeal:
1. The Court lacked jurisdiction to determine the appeal. However, in view of the public interest nature of the dispute, the need for due guidance to the judicial process and to the courts below and for the sake of posterity and development of jurisprudence the Court (the majority) has decided to settle all the pertinent questions the appeal raises, instead of downing tools on account of want of jurisdiction.
2. The impeachment proceedings before the County Assembly and the Senate were properly conducted in accordance with Article 181 of the Constitution, Section 33 of the County Governments Act and Standing Orders of the Assembly and the Senate.
3. The appellant was accorded adequate time and facility to respond to the charges against him both at the county assembly and in the Senate.
4. That the form of verification envisaged in the context of an impeachment motion is a signed copy of the motion by the Mover and verified by the signatures of at least a third of the members in support of the motion and not an affidavit or any form of disposition.
5. There was sufficient public participation, the intended tabling of the motion for the impeachment of the appellant was not only advertised in a local daily newspaper with wide circulation, in response to which people submitted memoranda, but also a survey was conducted in the county in the form of questionnaires. This was in addition to the fact that the proceedings were conducted in public.
6. There were four counts of impeachable charges against the appellant. The County Assembly, the Senate and the two superior courts below were convinced that the charges were proved to the standard required in such circumstances. No error in their analysis and conclusion has been presented.
7. In the instant situation, the people exercised their power through their democratically elected representatives to uphold and defend Chapter Six of the Constitution.
88 Nairobi Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) had voted for Sonko's impeachment on December 3, 2020, a move upheld by the Senate.
Speaking during a joint media interview on Wednesday, July 13, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati and CEO Marjan Hussein Marjan were at odds to explain what to do next on the matter which saw the High Court ordering the commission to clear him to vie for the seat.
“As a commission, we must obey the orders and enforce. It will have to be enforced and complied with… But that notwithstanding, I’m aware the issue around impeachment is at the Supreme Court and will be heard perhaps tomorrow. In future, there will be clarity along that line.
“But for us, how we operate, we follow the law and implement court orders as they come. We don't have a choice on that. 26 days before the election, we must finish printing ballot papers. Actually, we are even late in making changes to the ballot papers,” he said.
Chebukati confessed to not reading the judgement, noting that the commission was focused on finalising the process to give Kenyans free, fair and credible elections.
However, Marjan took a different view by noting that the commission would wait for a verdict from the Supreme Court on Sonko's impeachment, adding that the commission had stopped printing ballot papers for the Mombasa Governor race.
