Senate to debate Martin Wambora’s fate

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU

Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro has for the second time convened the Senate to determine the fate of beleaguered Embu Governor Martin Wambora. In a special gazette notice released yesterday, the Speaker has asked all senators to show up in the Senate chambers in Nairobi’s County Hall on Tuesday.

The Speaker told The Standard on Saturday that the Senate had already received documents from the Embu County Assembly on the governor’s impeachment and that it will be meeting Tuesday to make a decision on how to proceed.

The set of documents that the Senate has from Embu County include the particulars of the allegations against Wambora; the results of the vote in the County Assembly to kick out Wambora; the roll of those members of the County Assembly who backed the motion to kick out Wambora; the Hansard of the day the resolution was made and the register of attendance.

“The Constitution and the law sets down the procedure on what to do next after we receive the documents. We will follow the law just like we did the first time,” said Ethuro.

The law requires the Senate to form a special committee to investigate the allegations against Governors, and then have the committee report to the Senate, which will then sit, deliberate and vote on the matter.

Insiders in the Senate told The Standard on Saturday that the Upper House was exploring two options regarding the case against Wambora; now that the House had exhaustively debated and voted on the matter two months ago.

The first, is that the senators and the legal team of the House will scrutinise the charges against Wambora, to determine if there are new allegations or if they are similar to the ones that led to the impeachment vote on the night of February 14 this year.

“If the allegations against the governor are the same ones that the Senate committee investigated, and used as a basis for his impeachment, then the matter is likely to be canvassed in the plenary,” said an insider familiar with House procedure.

The final call on how the Senate will proceed will be made early Tuesday in the Rules and Business Committee.

The Speaker confirmed that the final touches on procedure will be handled prior to the plenary hearings to make sure that the law was followed “to the letter”.

The first time the Embu County Assembly sought to kick out Wambora, the Senate formed a special committee that sat and investigated the allegations against him, and informed the House.

The Senate Committee convinced all senators that the beleaguered Embu Governor violated the procurement laws; that he was not in charge of the affairs in the county and that he also violated the Constitution.

“…in matters of procurement in respect of which Article 227 of the Constitution had been sited, there had been considerable inaction and lack of oversight on the part of the Governor. Although pursuant to Article 179 (4) of the Constitution, the Governor is the Chief Executive Officer of the county, it appeared to the Special Committee that the Governor was a mere bystander and an observer in procurement debacles,” the chairman of the Senate special committee on the issue, Dr Boni Khalwale, told the Senate ahead of Wambora’s impeachment.

The Senate’s decision to impeach Wambora was nullified by the courts because the MCAs and the Senate ignored Court orders, and thus rendering the whole process null and void.

It is crucial to note, that the Judiciary only queried the process that was used to kick out Wambora. The courts have no jurisdiction insofar as impeachment of governors is concerned.

This time though, the MCAs were quick in the initiation of the impeachment process. Wambora had tried, but he failed to get the court in Kerugoya to issue conservatory orders to stop the County Assembly from submitting the report to the Senate. The hitch was that Wambora was preempting a process that had not been concluded and therefore the judge had no facts as to what the MCAs had decided.

Whatever decision the Senate makes will be final this time round.