Sonko locked out of Mombasa gubernatorial seat, Supreme Court uphold his impeachment
Mombasa gubernatorial aspirant Mike Mbuvi Sonko has suffered a major setback after the Supreme Court ruled that he was properly impeached as Nairobi governor.
Sonko’s appeal was denied by a seven-judge panel chaired by Chief Justice Martha Koome for lack of jurisdiction.
“The Court lacked jurisdiction to determine the appeal. However, in view of the public interest nature of the dispute, the need for due guidance to the judicial process and to the courts below, and for the sake of posterity and development of jurisprudence the Court (the majority) has decided to settle all the pertinent questions the appeal raises, instead of downing tools on account of want of jurisdiction,” the document reads.
Sonko is currently barred from running for Mombasa gubernatorial seat as a result of the Supreme Court decision.
Persons impeached from office are regarded to have violated Article 75(3) of the Constitution, which states that “a person who is removed from office on the basis of a violation of Chapter 6 of the Constitution is ineligible to occupy any other State or public office, whether elective or appointive.”
The appeal was heard on the same day that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) cleared him to run for governor of Mombasa in the August elections.
Sonko was impeached by 88 Nairobi County Assembly members on December 3, 2020.
The former Nairobi governor had previously been cleared by the IEBC to run for the job of Mombasa Governor after he petitioned the Supreme Court to dispute his impeachment.
“There was sufficient public participation, the intended tabling of the motion for the impeachment of the appellant was not only advertised in a local daily newspaper with wide circulation, in response to which people submitted memoranda, but also a survey was conducted in the county in the form of questionnaires. This was in addition to the fact that the proceedings were conducted in public,” noted the judges.
The judgment comes on the heels of the IEBC’s decision to allow Sonko to run for the Mombasa gubernatorial seat after the High Court ordered the electoral body to put him on the ballot.
