CORD's bid to impeach President bound to fail

The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) has designed a new plot aimed at ousting President Uhuru Kenyatta from power. Though initially the Opposition coalition appeared hell-bent on using non-conventional methods to achieve their objectives, this time round the leadership has opted to use the floor of Parliament.

Reports have indicated that a team led by Suba MP and ODM chairman John Mbadi has already finalised drafting the motion of impeachment against the President.

Mr Mbadi, the mover of the motion, will be expected to comply with all requirements before his motion is approved for debate. Besides filing a notice of the motion with the office of the clerk of the National Assembly, he will have to wait for its approval by House Business Committee (HBC). If approved, HBC will slot in the order paper the date and time when it will be debated.

CORD is banking on Article 145 of the Constitution which outlines the grounds of impeachment and rules that would guide the entire process. The House speaker will only allow the debate on the motion to proceed if the mover manages to secure support of not less than 117 MPs. Is CORD capable of raising the numbers?

Opinion is divided on this issue along political, ethnic and regional lines. Of course, the critics of Uhuru’s administration argue that there is no way the coalition would fail to garner the requisite number bearing in mind that the total number of MPs belonging to CORD affiliate parties is 131. In making this argument, the critics turn a blind eye to one of the key aspects. It is not in doubt that dozens of their members have since shifted their political loyalties and are known to warm up to the ruling Jubilee coalition.

Personally, I want to be fair to both sides of the political divide. Let us assume that the mover of the motion will manage to raise the requisite number of MPs - 117. This will have no impact. But if this happens, all eyes will be trained to see how the coalition’s diehards would overcome the next major and critical hurdle? It should be noted that once the motion has been exhaustively debated and the mover satisfied that he has made his case, a vote shall be taken.

For the motion of impeachment to sail through, the vote will be expected to garner the support of two-thirds of the MPs. So how does CORD expect to beat Jubilee’s tyranny of numbers? What would they gain by engaging in a futile exercise that is only intended to embarrass the President? Yes, some of them have been quoted admitting that chances of winning are slim. They will not, however, give up because they want to use the motion to gain political mileage.

For now, TNA and URP which are mainstream parties forming the ruling coalition has 168 MPs and enjoy the support of small parties bringing the total number to 208. Given this scenario, I doubt CORD can raise the minimum number of 233 MPs required to pass the motion.

Article 145 [a] cites gross violation of the Constitution as one of the grounds of impeaching the President. CORD is relying on these provisions to argue its case. According to its narrative, Uhuru violated the Constitution when he maintained that the Government did not have the money to pay teachers the new salaries awarded to them by the Employment and Labour Relations Court.

CORD leader Raila Odinga is leading the onslaught against the President Kenyatta but the question that comes to mind is: How does he expect Kenyans to believe him yet he failed to address the recurring problem of teachers’ strikes when he served as Prime Minister and co-principal to President Mwai Kibaki?