Blow to Sonko as Lusaka Allows Only 4 Witnesses to Testify for Him
The Senate on Thursday dealt a major blow to Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko was after Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka ruled that only 4 out of the 7 witnesses his lawyers had lined up to testify would take the stand.
During the morning session, it was revealed that senate had not been served with the names and statements of the witnesses earlier as required in regulations of impeachment proceedings.
“Having listened to all parties and having looked at the documentation that is before us and using my discretion like I did yesterday where I stretched the time, will allow four witnesses and the governor to testify,” Lusaka said.
The speaker had earlier ruled that only Governor Sonko would testify but after intervention from Senators, Lusaka allowed admission of the four.
The governor on his part led by lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui insisted that the witnessses’ names and their affidavits were filed in time.
Taking the stand against the Nairobi County Assembly members was Silvia Museiya, who is a nominated Member of the Nairobi County Assembly told the Senate that the impeachment process against Sonko was being pushed by the leadership of the County Assembly.
She argued that the impeachment was not on merit and asked the Senate to dismiss the the motion.
“This impeachment is of the interest of a few people who hold leadership positions, not so much because of the substance but because of selfish interest. They say it is either their way or you get out of the way,” Museiya claimed.
She claimed that she was among the MCAs whose accounts had been hacked during the sitting to impeach Sonko.
“I was in Kwale County on that particular day but miraculously, my signature was on the zoom list. They hacked accounts and they used fake emails for the motion to sail through,” she added.
The nominated MCA was also put to task over her decision to join 57 other pro-Sonko MCAs in Kwale in order to deny the Assembly the two thirds threshold needed to impeach the Governor.
The second witness, Immanuel Kenga, a document examiner, pointed out that after using his 26-year experience, he managed to substantiate real signatures and some of them were made by the same author.
“I examined the handwriting on the entries on the list from page 1 to number 88, and in my opinion, entries number 3, 4,9,20,69,85 were all made by the same author,” Kenga said.
He stated that the document containing the signatures was submitted to him by Ondieki and Ondieki Advocates on behalf of members who were against the impeachment.
Other witnesses to take the stand were Douglas Ouma and Kevin Omari.
Sonko will know his fate later today when the senators will vote to either reject or uphold his impeachment.
