Governors’ case adjourned over technicality

By Munene Kamau

Kerugoya, Kenya: The hearing of a petition seeking a permanent injunction restraining the Senate from summoning governors over management of public funds has been put off on a technicality until Monday next week.

When the matter came up for hearing, the counsel representing the Governors’ Council – the petitioners – failed to produce an affidavit of service as required.

Peter Wanyama of the International Legal Consultancy Group, who has gone to court on behalf of the governors, told the High Court in Kerugoya that he had been unable to trace the stamped copy of his client’s affidavit.

Civil case

He told Justices Hedwig Ong’undi, Cecilia Githua and Boaz Olao that he needed more time to serve the Senate and its Clerk, who are the respondents in the civil case.

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“I have contacted my legal team and none of them seems to have retained neither the stamped copies of the affidavit nor the receipt of the same and I urge this court to give us more time to serve the respondents afresh,” he said.

 The courts allowed the application and set the case to be heard on Monday next week.

In the petition, the council is seeking for a permanent injunction restraining the Senate and its clerk from ever summoning governors to answer to queries raised over the county public finance management as had happened to the impeached Embu Governor Martin Wambora.

The applicants also want County Executive Committee members shielded by the same orders.

The hearing of the other application seeking to declare the impeachment of Wambora null and void continued in the same court yesterday.

Lawyer Kibe Mungai representing acting Embu Governor Dorothy Nditi, who has been named as one of the seven respondents, continued with his submissions.

Kibe had earlier on submitted that Nditi be sworn in, having fulfilled all the conditions required after a governor ceases to hold the office as provided for  in Article 181 of the Constitution.

The court, however, ruled it would be prejudicial to the petitioner’s case and upheld that Nditi remain in an acting capacity until the case is heard and determined since she is among the respondents in the matter filed by Wambora.

Kibe, who indicated that he required at least six hours to complete his lengthy submissions, was expected to take the whole of yesterday.