Members of Parliament allied to the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) say they are not interested in initiating an impeachment process despite Thursday's scathing court verdict for President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The High Court, while upholding a consolidated case by eight petitioners, said the 14-member Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) steering committee, which was gazetted by President Uhuru, and led by the late Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji, was unconstitutional.
The bench, led by Justice Joel Ngugi, said the president erred in initiating a process to change the constitution through a popular initiative. The court also observed that Uhuru was in breach of the constitution - an impeachable offence.
On Friday, MPs Alice Wahome (Kandara) and Sylvanus Osoro (South Mugirango) said the judgement was a big win for the constitution and sovereignty of the people of Kenya.
“We celebrate the judiciary. They have redeemed the nation from the shackles of dictatorship. You cannot make the constitution-making process your own bid. The document belongs to Kenyans. Ordinary Kenyans have been talking about all these issues,” said Wahome.
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Wahome said the Head of State should make amends after threatening the constitution by first approving the appointment of 41 new judges who were forwarded to him in mid-2019.
“Our team is not interested in the impeachment process but we need President Uhuru Kenyatta to come out clear on some issues. The president was found to have breached the integrity and provisions of chapter six of the constitution. The Head of State has violated the constitution. Let him start by appointing judges. He has failed an honorary duty,” Wahome added.
According to Osoro, the Bill was gazetted against the wishes of ordinary citizens.
“We are on record in parliament that we wanted to know who gave the president powers to initiate such a process. They have wasted public resources to change the law illegally, “said Osoro.
Osoro said the president should explain how monies spent in the process will be recovered, and provide an outline on how the court’s concerns shall be resolved.
“Any Kenyan can push the motion to impeach the president, but for now we have better things to do. The arrogance by some leaders, surrounding the president, has been put on hold. The blame is squarely on the country’s Attorney General. The brave judges have given this country time to celebrate. This is a jurisprudence across the world. Give people options on what they want to change,” added Osoro.
