Blow to Sonko as suit challenging his Mombasa gubernatorial bid to proceed
The High Court has determined that the petition challenging former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko’s candidacy for the Mombasa governorship race will proceed to its logical conclusion.
Justice John Mativo issued the decision while presenting the status of the case after allowing the initial petitioner, Ndoro Kayuga to withdraw from it.
The petition will now be continued by the second petitioner, George Odhiambo, according to Justice Mativo.
“The first petitioner be and is hereby allowed to withdraw from this petition and is discharged from these proceedings immediately,” ruled Mativo.
Mativo argued that Odhiambo (2nd petitioner) will continue with the petition since the 1st petitioner’s reasons for withdrawing the suit are insufficient.
The High Court stated that the rationale for the petition’s withdrawal did not meet the legal requirements.
The petition shall be heard unless the public interest is jeopardized or the legal procedure is abused.
Through his lawyer Titus Kirui, the first petitioner, Ndoro Kayuga claimed that he had realised Sonko’s impeachment case was more political than legal.
“That however on the same day in the evening of 25th April 2022, the 1st respondent (Mike Sonko) appeared on Kenya Television Network, a national television, as a guest in segment called “Check point” where he articulated in detail his tribulations as the governor of Nairobi county,” said Kayuga.
According to his counsel Kirui, with an appeal by the besieged governor over his impeachment pending in the Supreme Court, Kayuga’s motion to bar Sonko would be denied on the grounds that it was premature.
“I am advised by counsel which advice I believe to be verily true that based on the pending appeal at the Supreme Court, the current petition is therefore premature and may suffer from the doctrine of ripeness if the same proceeds,” the petition read.
Sonko was impeached and removed from the office of Nairobi Governor on December 17, 2020, for breaking Article 75 (1) (c) of the Constitution by behaving in a manner that degraded the position of a county governor.
“The 1st Respondent, having been impeached and removed from the office of the Governor of Nairobi City County, is disqualified from vying for and being elected into the office of the Governor of Mombasa County and from holding any other State office by virtue of Article 75 (3) of the Constitution,” read the petition.
