The High Court has stopped all impeachment proceedings against Meru County Governor Kawira Mwangaza by Meru County Members of the County Assembly.
Judge L Kassan ruled that the MCAs who want to remove the governor from office through impeachment should put all their plans on hold until he determines the matter on Monday 29, July 2024.
“The whole decision as to whether this court has jurisdiction or not will be availed by Monday the, 29 July 2024 at 9am……The upshot of the above is that the impeachment process is halted Pending my ruling,” he said
the Judge observed that; “An impeachment is a process that directly engages a person to be impeached and so like a normal process of dismissal, the right to a fair hearing must always be upheld – and who or which institution is supposed to oversee the fulfillment of a right to fair hearings? Can we say for example that the County Assembly, being interested is bestowed with the absolute powers to decide on what is constitutional or not? And if this is the case, what would be the basis of having a constitutional court?”
By granting stay orders, the judge noted that the impeachment process will await the substantive ruling, meaning it will just be a matter of postponing the impeachment; and that no prejudice will be suffered or if it be there then a remedy will come in handy from the court’s main ruling.
In his ruling, the judge also brought to the fore the fact that this is the fourth time that Governor Mwangaza is facing impeachment. While the previous attempts failed, Judge Kassan noted that it is in the interest of the public that the petition is decided at this stage to pave the way for future smooth process because so far, resources and judicial time have been spent.
