Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko now wants Chief Justice Martha Koome to resign over a recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld his impeachment.
Sonko was dealt a blow after the Supreme Court on Friday, July 15, 2022, upheld a lower court’s ruling that he was fairly removed from office in December 2020.
The decision of the highest court in the land technically locked the Mombasa gubernatorial hopeful out of the race slated for August 9.
Reacting to the ruling on Saturday, the former county boss claimed Koome, who was part of the seven-judge bench that delivered the judgement, was compromised.
He said the CJ had already declared her stand on the matter of impeached county bosses seeking elective office, hence should have recused herself from hearing the petition.
“Martha Koome was heard on media saying that an impeached governor remains impeached until the case is overturned, a prisoner remains a prisoner until his appeal is upheld and the case is overturned,” Sonko protested.
“She was at fault because contrary to the law, the fact that she is a Supreme Court judge, she was not supposed to be in my case ruling because she already had an opinion that I am not supposed to be a governor and in the IEBC list.”
Sonko insisted that Koome should step down for defying her own directive barring Kenyans from commenting on matters pending in court.
“Martha Koome is not above the law, I am not against her, I respect her but she should not be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. I want her to step down in a respectable manner, I am not saying this because I was disadvantaged by the ruling but I have my own reasons,” Sonko added.
“She has defied the directive that one shouldn’t comment on an ongoing case…ajichukulie hatua na ajifunge miezi sita (She should sentence herself to six months in prison) for defying her own order.”
Sonko was referring to a previous directive by CJ Koome to lawyers Nelson Havi and Ahmednasir Abdullahi, where she barred them from commenting on ongoing court cases, saying they risk six-month imprisonment.
Sonko’s plan B
Sonko said he will be moving to the East Africa Court of Justice to seek a review of the Apex court judgement.
“I will be on the ballot, the law allows me to be on the ballot. The decision of the Supreme Court was recused. There was a forgery,” he said.
