Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko appeared before Senate over his impeachment motion on Wednesday.
Sonko walked into the house at around 11 am flanked by his legal team, led by Lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui.
Sonko is facing a Senate plenary trial today and tomorrow (Thursday), after which his fate will be decided.
He is facing a myriad of charges upon which the Nairobi County MCAs impeached him, among them Gross violation of the Constitution or any other law, Abuse of office, Gross misconduct, and crimes under the national law.
On several occasions, the governor has made attempts to have court stop the Senate from holding the debate.
Already, there is a pending case in court where Sonko had pleaded with Justice Nduma Nderi to restrain the Senate from subjecting him to trial over allegations of misconduct.
The judge, however, declined the request and said he will issue a substantive ruling on the matter later this afternoon. That ruling is expected to be delivered at 3pm.
Earlier, while making opening remarks before Senators, his lawyers argued that the accusations levelled against Sonko are anchored on witch-hunt and malice and therefore do not warrant his removal from office.
Kinyanjui asked: “If a man should be denied audience when they are faced with accusations and then sentence passed against them, isn’t that violation of the Constitution?”
But lead counsel for Nairobi County Assembly Ndegwa Njiru argued that Sonko had been irresponsible in his governance throughout and thus should vacate office.
“There is a price for everything and the price for accountability and integrity demands that the governor vacates office. The question of good governance cannot be compromised,” he said.
Sonko’s fate will be defined tomorrow when senators vote to either uphold or reject the assembly’s impeachment motion.
