Elachi vows to challenge court order on Sonko’s impeachment

The speaker of Nairobi county assembly Beatrice Elachi yesterday postponed the debate on Governor Mike Sonko’s impeachment motion following Monday’s court order.

However, Elachi vowed to challenge the court order, saying the assembly is an independent institution.

“The reasons by the court to have the impeachment motion suspended will not go unchallenged and as the speaker I will stand firm in defending this institution,” she said.

On Monday, the Labour and Employment court temporarily stopped the impeachment of Sonko until due process is followed.

The court directed that the county assembly adheres to standing orders 67 and 72.

Speaker Elachi disagreed with the court, saying they had dispensed with the matter of who is the clerk with the board appointing Monica Muthami as acting clerk in place of Jacob Ngwele.

She pointed out that an ad hoc committee formed by the assembly last November to look into the issues surrounding the appointment of Ngwele as the clerk established that he was irregularly appointed.

“The report was made public and no person, including Ngwele himself, has ever challenged the report,” Elachi stated .

“Therefore, this assembly shall never be curtailed from performing its constitutional duties in the pretext of absence of the clerk or any other person."

Minority whip Peter Imwatok agreed as ordered by the court not to proceed and debate the impeachment motion.

The motion had already been slated in the order paper of Tuesday.

“I was served with the court order and as a law abiding citizen, as a member of the ODM, we shall not be the first to violate and at the same time defend the Constitution,” he said .

Imwatok said the motion had matured and he would not withdraw it.

“ As the mover of the impeachment motion this does not mean that I have withdraw the motion. This puts us as an assembly that any given time we shall be called upon to make decisions."

Justice Byrum Ongaya suspended the impeachment motion to a later date after Sonko through his lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui argued that the law was violated.

The Makongeni MCA questioned why the court was handling a constitutional matter.

“It is a fact we have an impeachment motion, the grounds, we followed the law and it is a fact we will impeach the governor ,” he said

On Monday, the ODM MCAs held a Kamkunji where they agreed to keep up the spirit of impeachment.

Imwatok who did not attend the State House meeting on Saturday said the President was misquoted on the issue of impeachment.

“The president never pronounced himself on the issue but spoke deeply on the takeover of county functions, and as ODM MCAs we shall not misquote the President or our party leader,” he said.