Court Upholds Impeachment of Kisumu Speaker Onyango Oloo

The Employment and Labor Relations Court on Tuesday upheld the impeachment of Kisumu County Assembly Speaker Onyango Oloo.

Oloo moved to court to challenge the decision by Members of County Assembly (MCAs) to removal him from office on the grounds that due procedure was not followed. Oloo was ousted from office on September 18th, 2018 after 42 MCAs (75 percent) voted to impeach him.

In a ruling on Tuesday, Justice Nduma Nderi noted that the case filed by Oloo lacked merit and directed him to return all properties belonging to the county assembly. The judge ruled that the Ward Representatives followed the due process and Oloo’s impeachment met the 75 percent threshold.

The judge said that evidence before the court showed that the conditions required for impeaching a speaker were met and faulted Oloo for refusing to turn up when the MCAs gave him an opportunity to defend himself.

Oloo was impeached on 10 grounds, chief among them abuse of office and his ongoing corruption case over the Lake Basin Mall tendering. Investigations by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) revealed that the cost of the mall was inflated from Sh2.5 billion to Sh4.1 billion.