Nyeri court reinstates Isiolo clerk, halts Assembly power play

Court gavel. [File]

A Nyeri court has today ordered the reinstatement of Isiolo County Assembly Clerk, Salad Boru Guracha, following his abrupt removal from office by the County Assembly Service Board.

The Employment and Labour Relations Court Judge, Justice Onesmus Makau, issued orders barring Guracha’s removal until a case filed at the Court is heard and determined.

“The application is certified as urgent, and an interim injunction is granted in terms of order 2 in the Motion, pending the inter-partes hearing. The application is scheduled for a virtual inter partes hearing on June 25, 2025,” the judge ruled.

He further directed that the respondents be served with the court orders and file their responses on or before June 24, 2025.

Guracha has sued the Speaker of the Isiolo County Assembly and the County Assembly Service Board in relation to ongoing efforts to impeach Governor Abdi Guyo.

“The Honourable Court be pleased to grant an ex parte conservatory order to preserve the office of the clerk of the County Assembly, Isiolo County and to prevent any other person from discharging the functions of the clerk, pending the hearing and determination of the Application dated June 17, 2025,” his application reads.

The board had on June 16 sent Guracha on compulsory leave in a move aimed at paving the way for the pending debate for the impeachment of the governor, before he sought the court’s intervention.

The clerk in his petition argued that he was suspended and sent on leave on grounds not provided for in the law.

The move to send him on leave, he said, violates Section 22 of the County Assembly Service Act, which limits the grounds for suspension or removal of a clerk.

Section 22 of the Act states that a County Assembly Clerk may only be suspended for his/her inability to perform functions, gross misconduct or misbehaviour, incompetence, bankruptcy, violation of the provisions of the constitution, and violations of the provisions of the County Assembly Services Act.

Guracha further argued that the assembly did not follow due process.

The Assembly had put a notice on June 14 announcing public participation for the removal of the governor.

But the clerk on Tuesday cancelled the session following a court order that suspended the planned impeachment.

“Notice is hereby issued that the County Assembly of Isiolo, in compliance with the above court order, has cancelled the Public Participation exercise slated for June 18, 2025, in various Wards within Isiolo County,” said Guracha in a notice.

The High Court in Isiolo issued an order stopping the impeachment of Guyo pending hearing and determination of the case before it.

Justice Heston Nyaga said he had perused the application, the affidavit in support thereof, and the Petition, and he was satisfied that the Petitioner had made out a case that warrants the grant of the relief sought.