Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko on Wednesday evening presented a communication to IEBC Mombasa Office to prove that he still has a pending matter in court.
Sonko said the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declined to clear him for the Mombasa governor race saying that he had been impeached.
On Tuesday, Mombasa County IEBC Returning Officer Swalhah Yusuf said Sonko failed to present a certified original degree certificate and stamped clearance paper from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
The two issues of verified degree and stamped EACC copies were resolved after Sonko’s team availed those documents.
However, IEBC said Sonko had breached Article 75 of the constitution, which led to his impeachment as Nairobi governor in December 2020.
Sonko said he cannot be disqualified from the Mombasa governor race, since he still had an active case before the Supreme Court challenging his impeachment.
He said Article 99 and Article 193 of the Constitution say that a person can only be barred to vie for a political seat if they had exhausted all the appeals in relation to a sentence or a decision.
However, IEBC officials did not bow to Sonko’s pressure.
The stand-off lasted nine hours from 2:15 pm to 10:45 pm on Tuesday.
On Wednesday evening, Sonko returned to the IEBC offices with a communication from the Supreme Court to prove that he still had a case, which was coming for direction on June 10.
“Yesterday (Tuesday), IEBC officials said they were not aware that we had an active case in court. We have succeeded in getting a communication from the Supreme Court registrar showing that we have a matter pending before that court,” said Sonko.
He said they delayed bringing the communication before IEBC because they were waiting for a response from the Supreme Court.
“The IEBC Returning Officer, on advice from her bosses in Nairobi, received our papers. She scanned them to Nairobi for verification. We are now waiting for their response,” Sonko said.
The former Nairobi governor said he is not sure when or whether he will be cleared to vie for Mombasa governor after presenting all the required documents.
“If they do not call us for clearance, then we still have other procedures to follow. We still have an opportunity to go to the IEBC Dispute Resolution Committee or the Courts,” he said.
