A dawn meeting at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko’s allies and some senators scuttled efforts to form a committee to investigate grounds for his removal.
Sources told the Star Majority leader Samuel Poghisio declined to give a notice of motion to debate the formation of the panel to escape the embarrassment of defeat.
“The leader (Poghisio) knew they did not have the numbers for the motion (for the formation of the committee) to go through. We had planned well and we had the numbers to defeat them,” a senator at the meeting told the Star.
According to another senator, allowing the case to be investigated by the committee would have been “too heavy” for the governor.
“We were very careful because we did not want to mobilise twice (in committee and plenary). We – a few strategists – drew the plan at JKIA. We are going to defend him (governor). We didn’t want to mobilise twice because it would have been counterproductive,” a senator who was part of the meeting told the Star.
Sonko will now face all 67 senators to defend himself from allegations levelled against him during his impeachment by the county assembly.
“The Senate Majority Leader having withdrawn or otherwise abandoned the Notice of Motion and therefore the Motion, the route of the committee is therefore abandoned and that now means that the Senate will investigate this matter in plenary,” Senate Speaker Lusaka said.
Sonko has been pushing for his charges to be heard by the whole House as opposed to the committee which he claimed would not have guaranteed him a fair hearing.
But senators who are pushing for the governor’s removal have claimed that he has been misled by his strategists.
“It is now going to be easier to remove him in the plenary. I wish he could listen. He will go home,” a senator critical of the governor said.
Despite the Senate Business Committee chaired by Lusaka having approved the formation of the committee, Poghisio declined to give a notice of motion for the formation of the panel.
“For the convenience of the House, I proposed that you skip that order,” Poghisio said.
Moments to the 2.30pm sitting, SBC had released the names of 11 members that it had proposed to sit in the committee.
They were Samson Cherargei (Nandi), Charles Kibiru (Kirinyaga), Hargura Godana (Marsabit), Abdullahi Ali (Wajir), Alice Milgo (nominated) and Christine Zawadi (nominated).
Others were Okong’o Mogeni (Nyamira), Mohammed Faki (Mombasa), Judith Pareno (nominated), Petronilla Were (nominated) and Fred Outa (Kisumu).
In his ruling, the Speaker invoked Standing Orders 56 and 59, which allow the sponsor of the motion to either withdraw it or let the SBC reschedule the motion to a later date.
The Speaker will gazette Thursday and Friday for the governor to be tried by the whole House.
“I will gazette the two dates when the hearing of the charges against the governor will be conducted,” Lusaka said before adjourning the session.
In January, the senators upheld the impeachment of Ferdinand Waititu as Kiambu governor through the plenary.
Sonko faces charges of gross violation of the Constitution, abuse of office and gross misconduct.
In the particulars read out by the Speaker, Sonko is accused of intimidating and harassing county officers thereby violating Article 75 of the Constitution on the conduct of state officers.
The ward reps claim the governor has blackmailed his executives and chief officers with one-year contracts, whose renewal he has undertaken arbitrarily. Workers are left jittery about the status of their employment, creating a climate of fear and uncertainty, the MCAs claim.
The MCAs also fault the governor for abusing his office by violating Article 75 of the Constitution. They claim Sonko unlawfully used public funds to pay for his daughter’s travel to New York. The daughter travelled to attend the County First Lady’s Conference, held during the 62nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women 2018.
Earlier, there was a heated discussion in the chamber after Lusaka ruled that the House would use a hybrid system (virtual and physical sittings) in Sonko’s case.
Some senators alleged mischief but the Speaker stood his ground. He said the prevailing Covid-19 situation called for a hybrid system to protect members.
“I see a lot of room for mischief. Let’s suspend the operationalisation of this system and do a mock exercise first,” Narok Senator Ledama Ole Kina said.
But the Speaker said the Standing Order allowing for the hybrid system was approved by all the members.
“We are the ones who passed these Standing Orders; we must start somewhere. Of course, it may not be perfect. We may make changes but let’s have confidence in ourselves,” the Speaker said.