Former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu has proposed that the laws that govern the impeachment of governors be amended to shorten the period in which one remains ineligible to vie for elective office.
As it is now, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) disqualifies anyone from holding public office if the person has been dismissed or otherwise removed from office for contravention of Chapter Six of the Constitution.
The decision is guided by Article 75 (3) of the Constitution which states that "A person who has been dismissed or otherwise removed from office for a contravention of the provisions specified in clause (2) is disqualified from holding any other State office."
Waititu was impeached and lost his seat as the Governor of Kiambu County on January 29, 2020, in accordance with Article 181 of the Constitution, for among other things, financial impropriety and Chapter Six of the Constitution.
According to Section 64 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, a person who is convicted of corruption or economic crime shall be disqualified from being elected or appointed as a public officer for ten years after the conviction.
But Waititu argued that his removal from office was engineered by the former Jubilee regime after he fell out with its leadership.
He told the bipartisan committee that it is thus unfair that he should continue suffering for ten years even when the current regime is friendly to him.
"Why should you suffer for ten years when the regime that wanted you out is gone?" he posed.
Waititu said the drafters of the Constitution only intended to have the excesses of governors checked but not to force them to be always in alignment with the ideologies of the regime of the day.
"Otherwise, so many other governors are going to suffer and we must make sure that this committee takes care of all the loopholes that have been there in our Constitution," he said.
"The drafters of the Constitution did not know or intend to hear or even to imagine that it was going to be used politically by some other leaders.
"Therefore my recommendation together with my other governor who was impeached like me Mike Sonko is that this committee makes sure that the impeachment is only going to be for that period that you were elected when you were not on good books with the leadership that is there in the government," Waititu averred.
Waititu and Sonko were impeached almost a year apart for corruption, abuse of office and misconduct.
Sonko was sent packing on December 17, 2020. Both lost cases at the court to reverse the decision.
Waititu lost in the UDA primaries in the run-up to the August polls but Sonko was stopped from vying for the Mombasa Governor seat.
