Senate Blocks Nyamira Governor’s Impeachment After Upholding Key Legal Objections
Senators on Wednesday evening voted overwhelmingly to halt the impeachment proceedings against Nyamira Governor Amos Nyaribo, after agreeing with a preliminary objection raised by his defence team challenging the legality of the entire process.
In a decisive outcome, 38 Senators supported the motion to terminate the proceedings, while only four voted against it—effectively preventing the case from advancing to a full trial.
The Governor’s legal team had, earlier in the day, filed two substantial objections that questioned both the constitutional basis of the impeachment and the legitimacy of the vote conducted by the Nyamira County Assembly.
Lead counsel Elias Mutuma told the Senate that the impeachment motion, dated November 11, 2025, “fell short of the constitutional and statutory requirements” set for removing a county governor from office. He argued that the Assembly’s resolution was “invalid, incompetent and fatally defective,” insisting it did not meet the mandatory thresholds outlined under Article 181 of the Constitution and Section 33 of the County Governments Act.
A central pillar of the defence’s argument focused on claims of proxy voting, which the lawyers described as a serious procedural breach. Mutuma dismissed the practice as “illegal, unknown to law, null and void,” telling Senators that it had been used to justify glaring inconsistencies in the vote tally.
According to the defence, only 19 Members of the County Assembly were physically present, yet the final result recorded 23 votes in favour of impeachment. “The numbers simply do not add up,” Mutuma said, characterising the outcome as “not just irregular, but numerically impossible.”
The team further challenged the County Assembly’s assertion that its membership had dropped from 35 to 32 due to three vacant seats, calling the explanation “illogical, misleading and unsupported by law.”
Representatives for the County Assembly rejected the accusations, maintaining that the impeachment vote was valid. They argued that proxy letters existed to support the disputed votes and insisted that the Speaker had acted within his authority in allowing the practice. While acknowledging that the Standing Orders do not expressly provide for proxy voting, the Assembly’s lawyers contended that Standing Order No. 1 grants the Speaker discretion to interpret procedures where the rules are silent.
During the debate preceding the vote, several Senators underscored the importance of ensuring fairness for both the Governor and the County Assembly, with some stressing that the Senate had a responsibility to safeguard constitutional integrity and due process.
After deliberating on the objections, the Senate ultimately agreed with the Governor’s defence, concluding that the procedural flaws raised were too significant to ignore.
The decision brings the impeachment bid against Governor Nyaribo to an abrupt end, marking a significant setback for the County Assembly and reaffirming the Senate’s role as the final arbiter in county-level impeachment matters.
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Senate Blocks Nyamira Governor’s Impeachment After Upholding Key Legal Objections