Former nominated senator Gloria Orwoba has lost her court battle against the UDA party after the High Court dismissed her case.
The ruling, delivered on Thursday, August 13, by Justice Lawrence Mugambi was a setback for Orwoba, who had challenged her expulsion from the party. The court found that she had not followed the correct legal procedures.
The court's decision hinged on two key issues that Orwoba had raised.
The first was her accusation that the UDA was in contempt of a court order. She claimed that the party had disregarded a temporary injunction issued on May 15, 2025, which had halted a disciplinary hearing against her scheduled for the following day.
She alleged that despite the order, the UDA Disciplinary Committee went ahead with a secret hearing, which resulted in a decision to expel her from the party and remove her as a nominated senator. However, the court found that Orwoba did not provide sufficient evidence to prove this.
"It is my humble conclusion that the Petitioner [Orwoba] has not demonstrated that the 1st Respondent [UDA] Disciplinary Committee is in contempt of the specific Court order," the judge ruled.
Removal as senator
The second issue was Orwoba’s attempt to challenge her removal as a senator, which followed her expulsion from UDA and her subsequent dismissal as a nominated senator of the party.
The court noted that she had filed a case with the High Court while simultaneously pursuing the same dispute at the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal. The judge pointed out that the law requires a party to use internal dispute resolution channels first.
"The Petitioner has not satisfactorily explained why she should simultaneously pursue a remedy at both levels, that is, in the lowest forum closest to her, being the Tribunal and at the highest forum, being the High Court, for a dispute that is founded on the same facts," the ruling stated.
Justice Mugambi concluded that Orwoba's actions amounted to "forum shopping" and "abuse of the Court process," as she was attempting to have the same matter heard in two different forums at the same time.
For these reasons, the court declined to exercise its jurisdiction and instead directed Orwoba to continue with the legal channels she had already started at the Tribunal.
"For the reasons stated, I would decline to exercise jurisdiction and direct the Petitioner to exhaust the primary mechanism she has already engaged anyway. This Petition thus not only offends the doctrine of exhaustion of remedies but is also an abuse of the Court process to have simultaneous proceedings both before the Tribunal and this Court over the same subject matter,” the judge stated.
Disciplinary Hearing
This court battle began after the UDA party summoned Orwoba for a disciplinary hearing on May 7, 2025.
Orwoba responded by going to the High Court to challenge the summons, arguing that the disciplinary process against her was improper and violated her right to a fair hearing.
The High Court issued a temporary order stopping the hearing, but after the party later dismissed her, she returned to court to seek to have the party cited for contempt and to stop her removal.
