• As per Justice Ngugi's ruling, governors are not just barred from office but also banished from the premises
• Ojaamong' has been charged with flouting procurement rules in a Sh8 million case
Image: COURTESY
Taita Taveta and Busia governors have integrity issues and should leave office like their Kiambu counterpart, the Civil Society Reference Group says.
The group wants the EACC, DCI, and the DPP to move to court and have Granton Samboja (Taita Taveta) and Sospeter Ojaamong' (Busia) barred from office.
The lobbyists said Justice Mumbi Ngugi's ruling barring Ferdinand Waititu from office set precedent in preserving the sanctity of the evidence that anti-corruption prosecutors may want to rely on in proving their cases.
"[The three bodies should]..move with speed in light of recent High Court rulings on corruption charges and have all state and public officers vacate office until their cases are fully heard and determined," the group said in a statement.
Ojaamong' was the first county boss to be dragged to court alongside five other suspects in July last year for allegedly flouting procurement procedures in acquiring private solid waste management services.
The prosecution says this occasioned a loss of more than Sh8 million.
For Samboja, the rights group cites his ongoing criminal case in which EACC accused him in 2017 of forging academic papers to vie for the general elections.
"Investigations established that there were discrepancies in the documents attached to the self-declaration form Governor Samboja submitted to the EACC and the records at Kenyatta University, and the EACC said as much in its 2019 report to the National Assembly earlier in the year," the group said.
It accuses the governor of being complicit in delaying the case by "mobilising a section of his constituents to make endless applications to be admitted as interested parties so that the case can take the five years of his term in office before being concluded.
"[The case continues to drag on] ... because as long as the governor remains in office, it is not in his interest that the case is heard and determined at the shortest time possible."
The lobby group led by Suba Churchill praised Justice Ngugi's ruling as 'emerging and progressive jurisprudence' that has injected new life in reinforcing integrity in public and respect to public resources.
It wants the implementation of the ruling extended to all other public and state officers "as part of raising the bar on ethical accountability as contemplated in Chapter Six of the Constitution 2010."
Churchill told the Star yesterday that governors or any other public or state officers as per Justice Ngugi's ruling is not just barred from the office but also banished from premises. They should also not transact the mandate of their offices.
"Governors Ojaamong' and Samboja, just like any person of immense influence have the potential of intimidating witnesses and bastardising evidence in their cases," he said. "It is not in their interest that the cases proceed independently and professionally to their logical ends."
Churchill allayed fears that deputy governors may exploit the ruling to topple their bosses by fishing for corruption cases. "The governors chose those deputies. That means they trust them."
He added: "The governors, even when away from the office, remain the titular heads of the devolved units. In any case, their deputies have limited responsibilities when holding brief. They cannot hire or fire anybody."