Activists seek to use Gachagua's impeachment to buttress petition to remove Ruto
By Joseph Ndunda |
Nyamwamu says Kenyan people who hired the President and his deputy should have the power to fire them.
Activists who earlier this year petitioned the High Court to order a referendum to allow Kenyans to remove President William Ruto and his former deputy Rigathi Gachagua from their respective offices have been allowed to amend their petition to remove Gachagua from the list of the respondents.
Justice Bahati Mwamuye gave the activists under the Kenya Bora Tuitakayo Initiative seven days to update their application to remove Gachagua who has since been impeached, and deal with Ruto separately in their bid to have Kenyans change the leadership of the country.
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The activists, led by governance expert Cyprian Nyamwamu, had requested to update their application and renewed their request for an expanded bench to hear and determine their application.
The respondents indicated that they required 14 days to file their responses to the application seeking leave to amend the petition.
Mwamuye gave the petitioners seven days to file and serve a supplementary affidavit annexing the proposed amended petition.
The judge gave Ruto, the Attorney General, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and Parliament, among others, 14 days to respond to the application to amend the petition, upon being served.
The activists accuse the president and his former deputy of gross violation of the Constitution and want to use Gachagua's impeachment to buttress their accusations against the two.
Grounds for removal
They claim the two had violated the Constitution more than 36 times before the petition was filed mid-this year and that the impeachment of Gachagua on similar grounds is a vindication and proof of the grounds they want the two out of office.
They want the High Court to explain to Kenyans whether the Constitution is helpless in the face of its being violated by a sitting president and his deputy.
They say Ruto and Gachagua violated the Constitution more than 36 times within two years, but have captured Parliament to make their removal through impeachment unachievable.
"The constitution is not helpless. It has asked the citizens of Kenya (in Article 3) to defend it. In defending the constitution, the citizens must by-pass a captured Parliament and move the courts, the High Court specifically, which has been given this power by the Constitution in Article 165 in particular, to find the President and his deputy to have violated the Constitution," stated Nyamwamu
"If Gachagua is removed by the Senate, we remain with President Ruto which is more desirable than trying to take on both. If they are found to have violated or failed to uphold the constitution as is in their oaths of office, what is the remedy? Our proposal is that the people of Kenya in exercising power directly should do this removal through a referendum."
Nyamwamu says Kenyan people who hired the President and his deputy should have the power to fire them.
And if their (Kenyans') agent – Parliament – refuses to do so, then they can seize their powers and exercise them by themselves, the petitioners say.
"A principal who has delegated a power to an agent does not lose his power to do what that agent can do," said Nyamwamu.
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