CoG Chairperson Wycliffe Oparanya Monday said, Justice Mumbi Ngugi’s ruling is a recipe for chaos in the devolved units underscoring the need to seek an interpretation on the ruling/FILE – Kakamega County Press
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 17 – The Council of Governors (CoG) has vowed to move to Supreme Court to challenge a High Court ruling which bars indicted county bosses from accessing their offices until their cases are heard and determined.
CoG Chairperson Wycliffe Oparanya Monday said, Justice Mumbi Ngugi’s ruling is a recipe for chaos in the devolved units underscoring the need to seek an interpretation on the ruling.
“The County Governments will urgently move to court over the ruling seeking governors to step aside when charged with corruption,” Oparanya said.
He said the decision to move to the apex court was unanimously arrived at during a full council meeting on Friday last week.
The CoG sitting was convened to discuss issues affecting the operations of the county governments.
The ruling by Justice Ngugi has seen Governors Ferdinand Waititu (Kiambu), Moses Lenolkulal (Samburu) and recently Mike Sonko (Nairobi) ordered not to access their offices after they were charged with corruption offences.
It is this growing trend set of by the court that governors want stopped probably in anticipation that more governors could fall victims to Justice Ngugi’s ruling.
In the case of Nairobi, the council is worried that a leadership crisis is looming since governor Sonko does not have deputy who can take over.
Lady Justice Ngugi ruled on July 24 that state officers charged with corruption should be barred from accessing their offices until their cases are determined.
In her ruling, Ngugi said that Section 62(6) of the Anti-corruption and Economic Crimes Act, apart from obfuscating, helps obliterate the “political hygiene” as it was contrary to the provisions of the constitutional requirement of integrity in governance, and against the national values as well as principles of leadership and integrity.
Ngugi further stated that allowing persons facing criminal charges to public offices entrenches corruption and impunity.
“Would it serve the public interest for him to go back to office and preside over the finances of the county that he has been charged with embezzling?” she wondered in her ruling.
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