Man with nine lives: Nyaribo survives, again, as MCAs' blunders save governor at the Senate

Besieged Nyamira Governor Amos Nyaribo on Wednesday survived the ignominy of being the second governor to be removed from office by impeachment after senators saved him on a technicality.

38 senators voted to uphold a preliminary objection challenging whether the two-thirds threshold needed to remove a governor from office by impeachment was met by the Nyamira County Assembly.

Attempts to have voting on a Motion on the raised preliminary objection deferred were defeated, with Senate Speaker Amason Kingi maintaining the House will proceed.

After a break of an hour, senators resumed the sitting minutes to 8pm before voting on the motion commenced. Less than 10 minutes later, the verdict was out. 

“The result of the division is ayes 38 and nayes four votes. So the eyes have it. The motion having been approved, the hearing of proposed removal from office by impeachment of Governor Amos Nyaribo is hereby terminated,” said Speaker Kingi.

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Three times lucky, third governor to be saved

Mr Nyaribo now becomes the third governor to be saved from removal from office by impeachment on a technicality, joining Abdi Guyo (Isiolo) and Kericho’s Eric Mutai. He has also survived impeachment thrice, as Nyamira MCAs have attempted to oust him at least once every year since he came into office.

Wednesday's Motion resulted from a preliminary objection raised by Governor Nyaribo’s legal team as lead counsel Elias Mutuma argued that grounds for the impeachment of November 25, 2025 failed to attain the constitutional and statutory threshold due to the two thirds rule.

This, he said, therefore meant the Nyamira MCAs' resolution was invalid and incompetent as it failed to meet the mandatory threshold under Article 181 of the Constitution and section 33 of the County Governments Act.

Mr Mutuma urged the Senate to find that the threshold of two-thirds in support of the impeachment motion was not achieved.

He argued that the Nyamira County Assembly comprises 35 members and that, therefore, the requisite two-thirds majority for a valid impeachment resolution is 24 members and not 22.

“The motion before you is based on a foundation that is constitutionally rotten, procedurally fraudulent and mathematically impossible,” said Mr Mutuma.

Mr Mutuma also challenged voting by proxy by some four members, terming it “alien, illegal and null and void”, adding that an attempt to explain the discrepancy through “proxy voting” was legally untenable and compounds the illegality of the proceedings premised on acts of fraud, forgery and misrepresentation.

Read: Two Nyamira MCAs file complaint, say they did not impeach Nyaribo

The advocate said only 19 members were physically present in the Assembly chamber during the impeachment and it was numerically impossible to have 23 votes in favour of the Motion, demonstrating that improper and fraudulent voting had occurred.

“What is this new thing called voting by proxy? Letters allowing such a voting emerged on December 1, 2025 and not on November 25, 2025. But assuming voting by proxy is allowed, did that even happen? We have three sworn affidavits that they didn't give instructions to anyone to vote on their behalf,” said Mr Mutuma.

Nyamira County Assembly’s case

For their part, the County Assembly’s legal counsel, led by Senior Counsel Katwa Kigen, argued that the two-thirds is on members present at any particular time and therefore cannot remain fixed and unaffected by any vacancies.

“The assembly has been conducting their assembly with 32 members. It's our argument that you allow this matter to go to full hearing and make the determination,” said Mr Kigen.

The advocate said the issue of voting by proxy, he observed it is a question of fact that ought to be determined through the examination of evidence during the hearing.

“The assembly has used proxies before. It's our argument that use of proxies was properly considered, evaluated and determined and is properly allowed by Nyamira County Assembly Standing Orders,” he said.

Senators have their say

However, Speaker Kingi agreed with the governor’s legal team that their objections met the threshold of a preliminary objection, occasioning a Motion on the same.

Moving the Motion on whether the Senate should resolve to uphold that the threshold required for the removal of a governor from office by impeachment was not met and thus terminate the hearing, Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot said the law must be adhered to.

“We cannot make laws and then lead the way in violating the law. We must be satisfied that indeed there was proper procedure followed. The law is the law. Anything outside the law is anarchy.” 

He added: “This is not to tell the people of Nyamira that there are no issues in Nyamira. There might be issues but before we get there, we must unfortunately ask ourselves whether this matter is properly before us as a House. Have we been properly invited and has the governor come here through the main door or the window?” 

Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka said: “Even though this is a political issue, I stand and base my position on the law. If members feel the threshold was not reached, then we stand by that. If the law is 24 members and that was not met, then we should let the matter rest even though my wish is that we listen to charges brought before us.”

“It is not the responsibility of the Senate to add county assembly members to meet the threshold. Go and do your job. Don’t bring unfinished products here. This is very simple mathematics. We will not sit here and waste our time on things that have not met the threshold,” said Mr Chute.

Kiambu Senator Karungo Thang’wa said that even though people still believe impeachment is a political process, the Senate should follow the law.

“We have seen governors wrongly impeached like Waititu and others. We wouldn’t want to be brought here by a Speaker who wants to overthrow a governor. We should now hold rogue speakers liable for what they do. So that we don’t eject governors because someone somewhere played politics.”

Divided House

But with the House clearly divided, several senators attempted to have voting on the Motion deferred or have it amended, while others opposed it.

Homa Bay senator Moses Kajwang’ urged Speaker Kingi to defer voting on the Motion to a later time by invoking Standing Order 66(3) of the Senate, even though he admitted the denominator for the two-thirds threshold cannot be a moving target.

“I would like us to catch these people swearing false affidavits. The only way to catch them is to proceed to full hearing and ensure someone is taken in for perjury. There is a problem in Nyamira that we must agree on. The county assembly is split in the middle and the people are not getting the services they deserve,” said Mr Kajwang’.

Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi agreed the threshold of 24 was not met but suggested the motion be withdrawn or amended to reflect the mood of the members who want full trial, a position shared by Elgeyo Marakwet counterpart William Kisang’.