I still have chance to be on the ballot — Sonko

After a nine-hour standoff on Tuesday, former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko left the Kenya School of Government, Mombasa, a dejected man.

Sonko, who was denied clearance to contest in the Mombasa governor seat by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, said he still has legal options to pursue.

He had arrived at KSG at 2.15pm for clearance but left the venue at 10.48pm after Mombasa county IEBC returning officer Swalhah Yusuf completely refused to clear him.

Sonko did not even address the hundreds of his supporters who had camped outside the venue, but urged them to stay calm as he seeks other legal avenues for the matter.

IEBC disqualified Sonko for the Mombasa race on three issues.

First, he had not brought a certified original degree certificate, his EACC clearance documents had not been stamped and, lastly, he had breached Article 75 of the Constitution that led to his impeachment as Nairobi governor in December 2020.

During the stand-off, Sonko was able to avail a certified degree and have the EACC documents stamped. However, Swalhah maintained that she would not clear Sonko for the Mombasa race.

She said she did not have orders to clear Sonko.

On June 3, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said all aspirants who had been impeached will not be cleared to vie for any elective post on August 9 general election.

On Monday, Nairobi High Court judges David Majanja, Enock Chacha Mwita and Mugure Thande withdrew orders that restrained the IEBC from allowing him to vie in Mombasa.

Swalhah said the High Court orders did not mean that IEBC should clear Sonko.

Sonko’s legal team, led by Titus Kirui, accused the IEBC county returning officer of contempt of court for refusing to obey a court order issued by the three-judge bench. 

At around 8pm, Sonko and his legal team briefly came out of the room to brief the journalists who were waiting outside.

“We had a small hitch on a certified degree, but we have been able to resolve it. The only sticky issue remaining is Article 75 on the standing of public officers, who have been impeached,” Kirui said.

“Our position as the legal team is that Sonko still has a pending court case at the Supreme Court, petition No 008/2022. That appeal is coming up on June 10 for direction.”

Kirui said the IEBC, therefore, cannot use Article 75 as a basis to bar Sonko, because Article 99 and Article 193 of the constitution say that a person can only be barred if they have exhausted all the appeals in relation to a sentence or a decision.

“In this case, there is a pending appeal at the Supreme Court and we hope this issue shall be resolved because we still have a window between June 10 and 19,” he said.

“We strongly believe that Sonko will be on the ballot. We have legal options that as a team we are going to deliberate and consider which is best for us.”

Sonko said he was taken by surprise by the turn of events since he had been cleared to run for Nairobi governor in 2017 with the same documents he produced on Tuesday.

“In 2017, I ran for Nairobi governor and I gave out a degree which had been certified by a lawyer. We were not told to bring the original degree. However, today they asked us for the original degree, and I have since availed it,” he said.

He said after his impeachment in December 2020, IEBC issued dates for a by-election in Nairobi through a gazette notice.

“On January 4, 2021, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati gazetted aspirants for the Nairobi governor by-election and one of the aspirants was Ferdinand Waititu, who had been impeached as Kiambu county governor,” Sonko said.

Sonko further said he rushed to court to stop the by-election since he had challenged his impeachment at the High Court.

“If Waititu, who has been impeached, was cleared to be on the ballot for Nairobi governor, why am I being barred from contesting. Is there a law for Sonko and law for Waititu?” Sonko said.

The former governor said he cannot be disqualified to run for any elective seat unless he exhausts all his chances of appeal.

“Chances of my appeal to go through at the Supreme Court are very high because the judges who handled the impeachment case at the High Court have been suspended on graft allegations,” Sonko said.

Sonko further said they still have time to appeal the disqualification at the IEBC Dispute Resolution Tribunal, which will be sitting from June 10-19.

(edited by Amol Awuor)