Senators have opted for a House plenary to handle Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko's impeachment -- settling for the route that sent home former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu.
Governor Mike Sonko – who says he prefers a plenary hearing – will know his fate next week.
This is after Senate Majority leader Samuel Losuron Poghisio abandoned a motion that had proposed a select committee to consider the ouster.
"The majority leader having withdrawn or otherwise abandoned the notice of motion and therefore the motion, the route of the committee is therefore abandoned and that now means that the Senate will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 the matter in plenary," Speaker Kenneth Lusaka told the special sitting on Wednesday.
Mr Lusaka said he will gazette December 17 and 18 as the dates for hearing and voting on the motion as fronted by the Senate House Business Committee.
The Business Committee had rooted for a select committee as provided for in Section 33 of the County Government Act.
Yesterday, the committee had settled on 11 members including Samson Cherargei (Nandi), Charles Kibiru (Kirinyaga) and Hargura Godana (Marsabit) to sit on the impeachment committee.
Speaker Lusaka said the four main charges against Sonko were; gross violation of the Constitution or any other law (the County Governments Act, 2012, the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2015 and the Public Finance Management Act, 2012), abuse of office, gross misconduct and crimes under the national law.
Nairobi County Assembly told Senators that the city boss unlawfully used public funds to pay for his daughter’s travel to New York, USA, to allegedly attend the County First Lady’s Conference held during the 62nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women 2018.
They also faulted Sonko for violating Article 73 of the Constitution and Section 8 and 11 on the Leadership and Integrity Act, 2012 on public trust and professionalism, "where he is on record admitting that he was intoxicated and thus not in the right frame of mind when he signed the Deed of Transfer for the transfer of certain functions of the county to the national government in February, 2020."
Impeachment
The ward reps impeached the Governor last week where 88 MCAs out of 122 voted in favour of the ouster motion.
Two Members of the County Assembly opposed the vote while twenty others abstained.
This is despite a court declining to lift orders stopping the impeachment. Governor Sonko had petitioned the High Court to stop the ouster, arguing it was illegal and unconstitutional.
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The ward reps accused the governor of gross violation of the law, misuse of office and inability to run the county government.
They said Sonko had failed to approve a Sh37.4 billion budget to facilitate the operations undertaken by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS).
If the impeachment motion is upheld by the Senators, Sonko will be the second governor to be found guilty by the Senate.
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