Two months after Kenya faced one of its Historical impeachments of its Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya has revealed why the country is experiencing too many impeachment attempts in this electoral term compared to the previous.
According to the governor, who spoke to the press on Wednesday, Chief Justice Martha Koome has enabled the impeachments with the court rulings and judgments.
The governor alleged that the court's ruling that impeachments are a political process is an enabler to these impeachments since MCAs or Members of Parliament can lobby allegations against a member and impeach them as long as they have the numbers, without the court having a say.
"According to the court's judgment and when you listen to the Chief Justice's opinion saying impeachment is a political process, she has opened doors for leaders to harass others alleging that they do not have to prove anything or it doesn't have to be legal as long as they have the numbers," Natembeya explained.
The governor argued that this judgment has had an expensive consequence by lowering the threshold for impeaching leaders.
"The question we should be asking ourselves is if this judgment is fair," the governor said.
Whether at the national or county levels, public officials who have lost lawmakers' confidence resolve to impeach them, a move that has seen many leaders lose their positions including former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Impeachments were introduced by the 2010 Constitution.
A leader can be impeached on grounds of violation of a provision of the Constitution or of any other law, where there are serious reasons to make the Parliament believe that they have committed a crime, violated the Constitution, or abused offense among others.
According to Article 150 of the Kenyan Constitution, there are generally three levels of impeachment.
Kenya's impeachment process requires the National Assembly and the Senate to achieve a supermajority. The second level requires approval from two bodies, but only up to a two-thirds threshold.
The lowest level of impeachment is easy if it requires fewer than the modal number of decision-makers to effectuate and simply one institution rather than both.
Over 13 Governors and three deputy governors have been attempted to be impeached since 2013. The highest level of impeachment Kenya has ever witnessed was that of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
