Towards Improving the Process of Impeachment of Governors in Kenya.

Abstract

The Constitution of Kenya, 2010 introduced a new level of government i.e the County Government with Governors as the head of such Counties. The county bosses have powers as outlined in the Constitution and other relevant laws. These powers should be exercised in accordance with the law. The drafters of the constitution envisaged situations where these powers can be abused and /or times when the county bosses would go astray. The Constitution provides that sovereignty belongs to the people and the people through their Members of Parliament can commence an impeachment process when any of the following grounds exists: gross violation of the Constitution or any other law; serious reasons for believing that a County Governor has committed a crime under national or international law; abuse of office; gross misconduct and physical or mental incapacity to perform the functions of the office of County Governor. The challenge with impeachment processes in Kenya to date relate to the process, namely public participation, sufficient notice and biasness. Some impeachment proceedings have not observed the aforementioned principles. The threshold for public participation is that of reasonableness which must be met. The impeachment procedure in Nigeria and South Africa are quite similar with both requiring the participation of the legislative arm of the Government by deed of section 188 of the Constitution of Nigeria and Section 130 of South Africa Constitution respectively. The principle of natural justice such as fair hearing, sufficient notice, adequate public participation, rule against biasness are observed. It is concluded that the impeachment process of Governors in Kenya has loopholes which need to be addressed. The recommendation from this work is that: public participation must meet the test of reasonableness; parties must be afforded adequate notice and adjudicator must be impartial, free of biasness.