{"id":695118,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/695118/?format=json","text_counter":1249,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Mr. George Ng’ang’a","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir and the Hon. Senators. This Senate is being called upon to discharge a solemn mandate. It is a mandate that is enshrined in our Constitution that is only reposit on this Senate. Before this matter was escalated to where we are today, the assembly has really suffered. It has been frustrated. The people of Nyeri County have suffered. They are looking upon the assembly to alleviate that suffering. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Senate has been seized of a matter of this nature before. This Senate does not just rubberstamp the decision or the resolution of the assembly. It considers very critically what is before it. That is why it has agreed with the decision of the Assembly, and in other instances, it has disagreed. There is no better way to demonstrate the independence and the ability and the capacity of the Senate to interrogate the matter before it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with the respect to the matter that is for consideration this evening, we have been able to demonstrate that the charges facing the Governor are largely not by omission but intentional acts of gross violation of the law. The law is clear, as has been said before, and I do not intend to take this Senate back on the issue of threshold, but suffice it to state that there is no mathematical formula that you will find under Article 181 that you are to employ in determining what is gross and what is not gross. Our courts have in the past attempted to set out some regulations or a sort of some loose formula for guidance purposes. Allow me to just refer the Senate to the Governor’s documents Volume III, a decision you will find at page 116. I refer to this decision because, first, it is a decision from the Court of Appeal. In fact, it is a decision that we have from the highest court in Kenya on the matter of threshold and, therefore, it would be a useful tool in guiding the deliberations of this Senate. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, and Honourable Senators, if you could refer to paragraph 46 of that decision - I know it starts from paragraph 45 - This is what the Judges of the Court of Appeal sitting in Nyeri had to say about what constitutes gross violation. “We reiterate that what constitutes gross violation of the Constitution is to be determined on a case by case basis. Gross violation of the Constitution includes violation of the values and principles enshrined under Article 10.” So, if Article 10 prescribes gender parity in appointments and you have a violation of that article, within the interpretation of the Court of Appeal, it is a gross violation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, then much more importantly is what follows thereafter. “That Article 10 of the Constitution and violation of Chapter 6 of the Constitution – I want to pause here to emphasise, Honourable Senators – or intentional and/or persistent violation of any article of the Constitution or intentional and blatant or persistent violation of the provisions of any other law.” So, if this Senate is satisfied that there is a violation of one section of any other law, a section of the statute, an article of the Constitution, if you are satisfied that the Assembly has been able to demonstrate, one, violation attributable to the Governor, then there would be a basis to return a verdict that the charge has been substantiated. That is the Court of Appeal speaking. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, just a brief highlight."}