Aasai

Kericho Governor Erick Mutai has once again survived an impeachment attempt, after the Senate ruled that the threshold for his removal from office was not met. On Thursday evening, 23 senators voted that the County Assembly had failed to meet the constitutional standard required under Section 33(3) of the County Governments Act, with 17 senators supporting the motion for his removal.

 Governor Mutai was facing tough  allegations of abuse of office, illegal and irregular appointments, and the dismissal of senior county officials. The Kericho County Assembly had voted overwhelmingly to remove him, with 33 of the 47 County Assembly Members of Parliament (MCAs) supporting the motion. 

It was the second time  for him in a year that Mutai has been ousted from office, but the Senate was spared. benefits. In his opening speech at the Senate on Wednesday, August 27, Mutai alleged that the Speaker of the Kericho County Assembly wanted him removed to take over the governorship himself. He alleged that during his impeachment before the County Assembly, the Speaker changed the numbers to meet the two-thirds majority required for his removal. 

“What is happening in Kericho is a well-planned political conspiracy to remove the governor. One is for political gain and the caravan, because in the County Assembly we have a speaker whose intention is to become the governor of Kericho,” he said. “This is by impeaching the governor and perhaps along the way impeaching the deputy governor and sitting as governor and deputy so that in the ten years he served as the Kericho CEC in charge of finance and the CEC in charge of roads, he can accomplish what he has never accomplished.”

 In October last year, Mutai survived a similar attempt to remove him from office after the Senate voted in his favor. At the time, Mutai argued that the Kericho County Assembly had failed to meet the two-thirds majority required for his removal. 34 senators voted in favor of the governors motion, against 10 who voted for a hearing on the impeachment case against Tom OJienda. "If there is doubt, the evidence should be on the Governors side," he said. 

Senator Godfrey Osotsi dismissed the ICT Authority expert report, saying the findings were not supported by any given evidence. Speaker Amason Kingi suspended the impeachment proceedings after the vote, saying that if the threshold was not met in the County Assembly, the Senate had no business conducting the case.