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Isiolo Governor Abdi loses bid to stop his removal from office for ditching Azimio

Isiolo Governor Abdi Hassan Guyo in a meeting at the Defence headquarters offices in Nairobi on November 20, 2023. (X/ Ministry of Defence)

By Joseph Ndunda | Saturday, April 6, 2024

The three judges of the Nairobi High Court ruled that the case against the two must be heard to its conclusion to determine if their political move was in violation of the constitution.

Isiolo Governor Abdi Guyo's bid to stop the petition seeking to remove him from office for ditching the Jubilee Party to join the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) has flopped.

Abdi and his deputy, John Lowasa, had petitioned the high court to stop a suit by the Azimio la Umoja Coalition, which sued them for dumping the party they relied on in the August 2022 general elections.

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And a three-judge bench comprising justices Lawrence Mugambi, John Chigiti and Jairus Ngaah threw out the two politicians' application to stop the petition against them.

The coalition wants them forced to resign and seek a re-election on the party they decamped to, via a by-election, by urging the court to declare that their (Abdi and Lowasa's) migration was unconstitutional.

The three judges of the Nairobi High Court ruled that the case against the two must be heard to its conclusion to determine if their political move was in violation of the constitution.

The additional respondents in the suit include the Registrar of Political Parties, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), and the Attorney General.

The suit was filed by Guyo Guracha, Mohamed Wario, Teddy Muturi and Stephen Kihonge, who want the high court to declare the party hopping unconstitutional.

Abdi and Lowasa, in their attempts to stop the case, had argued that the petition was a plot to remove them from the office through the back door.

But the bench said that Abdi and Lowasa's claims were unfounded, and the petition by the four will continue.

The judges said Abdi and Lowasa's fears that the petitioners are seeking their removal from office in this petition are misplaced.

Their opinion is that the argument that they lack jurisdiction to dispose of the petition on the ground that it seeks the removal of a governor and his deputy "is premature and, at best, misconceived".

They agreed with the Raila Odinga-led coalition.

The judges also threw out an argument that the case should have first been heard by the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal (PPDT) and said the issue was not a dispute between political parties and their members but an issue of determining constitutional violations.

This decision means that Abdi is staring at the possibility of being removed from office to seek the electorate's mandate afresh.