Saving governors: Senate seeks to streamline impeachment of county chiefs

Members of County Assembly (MCA) will have to wait for at least six months before initiating an impeachment motion against governors once such an attempt flops if a new bill before the Senate is passed into law. 

Setting tough rules for removal of the county bosses, the Bill by Kiambu Senator Karungo Thang'wa also states that any subsequent introduction of such a motion must have new grounds for removal from office from the earlier one. 

The County Governments (State Officers’ Removal from Office) Procedure Bill, 2024 also blocks MCAs from re-introducing an impeachment motion against a governor before lapse of 90 days from the dispensation of the initial ouster bid by the Senate.

In addition, the Bill provides for a robust legal framework for the removal from office of governor, deputy governor, county executives, county secretary and county assembly speakers.

The proposed law comes at a time when Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza has been impeached for the umpteenth time in less than two years in office. 

The first term governor was faced with her first impeachment motion less than four months into office. 

Senator Thang'wa said the Bill is necessitated by a lack of a comprehensive statutory framework for the removal, from office, of the said four categories of county state officers.

The proposed law has already undergone first reading in the Senate and is now set for public participation. 

Currently, the removal of the officers is provided for in the County Governments Act, 2012, a parent Act which the current Bill seeks to streamline.

The Bill states that a motion by a county assembly for the removal of the county governor by impeachment may only be re-introduced in the county assembly on the expiry of ninety days from the date of a vote by the Senate.

Further, such a motion may be introduced in the county assembly if it relates to particulars other than those which formed the subject of previous impeachment proceedings.

"The procedure for the removal from office of a county governor under this Part shall, with necessary modifications, apply to the removal from office of a deputy county governor," states the Bill in part. 

Besides impeachment on grounds of gross violation of the Constitution and gross misconduct, a governor shall also be liable for removal on grounds of mental incapacity.

According to the Bill, an MCA seeking to introduce an ouster motion against the governor shall secure the signatures of at least a third of the members of the assembly to initiate the process.

The MCA shall then write to the clerk who shall confirm before sending the same to the speaker for communication in the Assembly.

The clerk shall publish the impeachment in the local dailies, with a copy of the motion sent to the governor.

“If a motion under subsection is supported by at least two-thirds of all the members of the county assembly, the speaker of the county assembly shall inform the Speaker of the Senate of that resolution within three days,” it states.

In the Senate, the speaker shall verify the impeachment documents. They shall communicate the same in the House to kickstart the process of considering the ouster.

“If the Senate resolves that the county assembly complied with the procedure, the special committee shall proceed with the impeachment process,” it says.

If a majority of the county delegations of the Senate vote to uphold any impeachment charge—the county governor shall cease to hold office.

The Bill also provides that an MCA can introduce a motion to remove a governor on grounds of physical or mental incapacity.

If the motion is supported by a simple majority of MCAs, the speaker of the assembly shall write to the Chief Justice to form a tribunal to probe the governor.

The tribunal shall be composed of a chairperson being an advocate of the High Court nominated by the Law Society of Kenya.

Others are three persons qualified to practice medicine under the laws of Kenya nominated by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council; and one person nominated by the Council of County Governors.

“The tribunal shall inquire into the county governor’s physical or mental capacity to perform the functions of office and, within thirty days of its appointment, report its finding to the Chief Justice and the speaker of the county assembly.

The speaker of the county assembly shall cause the report of the tribunal to be tabled before the county assembly within two days of receiving it.

“The report of the tribunal shall be final and not subject to appeal and if the tribunal reports that the governor is capable of performing the functions of the office, the speaker of the county assembly shall so announce in the county assembly,” the Bill states.

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