Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko was on Thursday impeached by the Nairobi County Assembly despite a court order barring MCAs from debating the motion.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court had issued an order suspending the planned impeachment pending the hearing of a case filed by the Governor, with a new development emerging Thursday when a judge who issued the order recused himself without providing reasons.
Sonko was impeached after two thirds of the members voted in favour of his ouster.
88 members voted in favour of the virtual motion to kick the Governor out against 2.
“Members you have made a decision and the assembly has resolved to remove Sonko from office by two-thirds of the members,” stated Speaker Benson Mutura at the end of the vote.
The mover of the motion who is also the Assembly’s Minority Leader Michael Ogada lauded members for supporting his motion, and asked the Senate to approve it.
Ogada, who is also the Embakasi Ward MCA had set four grounds for impeaching the Governor including his refusal to sign for funds allocated for the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) which took over some of the County Government’s functions.
He also accused the Governor of abuse of office, gross misconduct as well lack of physical and mental capability to run county affairs.
“From the onset, we were determined to remove the Governor because of the poor delivery of services and we are happy we have delivered what we promised the people of Nairobi,” said Ogada.
Ahead of the impeachment vote, MCAs allied to the Governor had alleged an attempt to hack into their emails for use in the zoom meeting that impeached Sonko.
The claims by the MCAs is a subject of investigation at Kwale Police Station where they lodged formal complaints.
