Wambora off the hook as Court of Appeal nullifies impeachment

The Court of Appeal has nullified the Senate’s decision to impeach Embu Governor Martin Wambora.

In the ruling, the Court of Appeal also said the High Court’s initial decision was erroneous.

Wambora has been in court for over a year since a motion of impeachment against him successfully went through both the Embu County assembly and the Senate.

Early 2015, Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki reaffirmed that Wambora’s removal from office was in accordance with the law.

“Any attempt to pretend that you can ignore institutions and get away with it, will only lead to problems. According to us, the Governor of Embu was impeached lawfully and the Senate does not act in vain,” said Kindiki.

The county assembly twice resolved to oust Wambora, on February 14 and later on May 13.

The governor has been accused of flouting the County Government Act by appointing public servants without the assembly’s approval.

Additionally he was faulted for flouting the Public Procurement Act in the purchase of Ksh35 million worth of maize seeds that never germinated, procurement of vehicles and authorization of the renovation of Embu Stadium at a cost of Ksh50 million up from Ksh8 million.

According to iLaw Kenya, “Impeachment is both legal and political process. The confusing, contradictory and sometimes conflicting court decisions make the process more chaotic and county governance almost impossible.”

The iLaw blog continues to state that there is need for clarity in the impeachment process: “There is need of clear legislative framework to guide the process and protect it from abuse and political vendetta instead of pursuit of good governance.”

In November, Wambora accused Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) of abusing their powers by impeaching Governors wantonly.

Wambora said MCAs are no longer executing their constitutional mandates of legislation at the county levels, but are busy trying to remove Governors from office.

He was speaking just days after the Murang’a County Assembly impeached Governor Mwangi Wa Iria over what it termed as abuse of office and misappropriation of public funds.

He said the Constitution of Kenya 2010 has played a big part in keeping them in office adding that most of them would have been sent packing.

The Embu Governor said impeachments will not serve as a solution but they will only create bad blood between the Governors and the MCAs.

Several other Governors have faced impeachment threats from their respective MCAs.

Wambora has now survived three impeachment attempts.