Nairobi County Assembly has asked the Labour Court to lift orders which shielded speaker Beatrice Elachi from impeachment.
The assembly through Senior lawyer Prof. Tom Ojienda argued that the case filed by Elachi was defective as she had not sworn an affidavit to support it. The application is defective, bad in law and for striking out,” Ojienda argued.
Prof Ojienda also argued that the court did not have powers to stop impeachment. According to the senior lawyer, the court could only intervene after Elachi was kicked out.
“The court had no powers to intervene within the process of the assembly. The Assembly is an independent body whose decisions can only be challenged at the tail end of the process,” he argued.
The lawyer cited Embu Governor Martin Wambora’s case, which the Supreme Court declared that he had been properly impeached by the assembly as it maintained independence from control by Judiciary.
The lawyer observed that the majority of Members of County Assembly had spoken adding that their voice could not be challenged before a court of law. “We cannot judicialise politics,” he argued.
Lawyer Ojienda also argued that Elachi was properly impeached as the orders of the court halting the process were served a day after a majority MCAs decided that she should leave office. At least 103 MCAs voted in favor of impeachment against two who objected.