Governor Mwangaza asks High Court to convict 2 Meru County officials for contempt of court
Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza before 11-member Senate Committee during her impeachment trial at Parliament buildings on December 27, 2022.
Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza has urged the High Court to convict two county assembly officials and a nominated MCA for alleged contempt of court, saying they ignored orders over her intended fourth impeachment.
She wants Speaker Ayub Bundi, Clerk Jacob Kirari and MCA Zipporah Kinya sentenced to a six-month civil jail term and fined for the role they played in the withdrawal of the motion.
In an application certified urgent, Ms Mwangaza noted that despite the orders, Ms Kinya had already introduced a fifth impeachment motion which is set to be debated on August 8, 2024.
The governor urged the court to bar the MCAs against debating, considering and deliberating on the new motion, saying she stood to suffer irreparable loss if the court did not intervene urgently.
Through lawyers Elias Mutuma and Ashaba Mark, the governor says failure to bar the MCAs from debating the motion dated July 31 would render the previous petition useless.
“The respondents/contemnors are perpetuating the very mischief meant to be cured by the earlier conservatory orders of this court hence are guilty of contempt of court. They are adamant and bent on seeing the impeachment motion through the County Assembly process without due regard to the rule of law and particularly the orders of this Honourable Court,” she says.
Soon after the court issued the directions, the governor claims that MCAs in support of the impeachment motion were quoted castigating the court by casting it in bad light.
She said the MCAs wrote a hard-hitting letter to “antagonize the judge, demeaning the court and making a mockery of the directions of the said court.”
Ms Mwangaza invited the court to punish the three to ensure the MCAs “abide by the rule of law and to restore and affirm the court’s dignity.”
Conservatory orders
“In a clear mockery and contempt of court proceedings the respondents revealed in the said letter that they would not take part in any of the proceedings before this honourable court. I recall that last year when the court issued similar conservatory orders against my first impeachment motion, the respondents sought to intimidate the court by issuing a similar letter,” she said in a sworn affidavit.
Ms Mwangaza urged the court to rule that the assembly was “guilty of exercising its powers in an illegal, excessive and abusive manner” by introducing five impeachment motions in two years.
She accuses the assembly of being partisan, and argues that if the motion was not stopped, her rights to fair hearing as guaranteed under Article 50(1) of the Constitution of Kenya stands to be violated.
The governor says the court had issued conservatory orders against the assembly, prohibiting them from debating, considering, deliberating on the motion of impeachment that was set for July 31, 2024.
She points out that the orders issued July 24, 2024 halted the impeachment process pending a ruling on issues raised by parties opposed to the process.
Meru High Court judge Linus Phogon Kassan had indicated that the August 20, 2024 ruling would address claims of forgery of signatures of some MCAs in papers supporting the impeachment motion.
A section of MCAs who had been listed as supporting the motion had moved to court claiming that they never appended their signatures in the documents, claiming they were forged.
The court was also to make a ruling on claims of double jeopardy by Ms Mwangaza by being prosecuted over issues that were raised during past impeachment motions.
32 MCAs
Justice Kassam is also expected to make a ruling on whether to admit a group of 32 MCAs said to be in support of Ms Mwangaza as interested parties.
The judge was also to rule on allegations of Sub Judice after Ms Mwangaza alleged that two of the grounds that the MCAs were relying upon were subject to active criminal and civil cases.
The governor recounts that the court had on July 29 explained that it had deferred its ruling to August 20, 2024, after Njuri Ncheke elders sought to be enjoined as Amicus curiae.
Justice Kassam had directed that the status quo be maintained by all parties pending the submission of a progress report from the elders.
Ms Mwangaza says that despite this, the assembly went ahead to hold a debate touching on the impeachment motion where Ms Kinya withdrew it in a session presided over by Mr Bundi.
She also petitions the court to declare as unconstitutional, section 33 (8) of the County Government Act which allows MCAs to re-introduce the same failed charges in the removal of a Governor after the expiry of three months.
