Senate · Morning Sitting

Clerk, do we have quorum? Serjeant-at-Arms, kindly ring the Quorum Bell for 10 minutes Hon. Senators, kindly take your seats. I am informed that we now have quorum. Clerk, kindly proceed to call the first Order.

[(The Quorum Bell was rung)]

[(Several Senators sat in their places)]

Hon. Senators, you will recall that at the Sitting of the Senate held on Thursday, 7th March, 2024, I appointed today, Wednesday, 13th March and tomorrow, Thursday, 14th March, 2024, as the days when the Senate will hear the charges for the proposed removal from office, by impeachment, of Hon. (Dr.) Robert Monda, the Deputy Governor of Kisii County.

At the sitting of the Senate held yesterday, Tuesday, 12th March, 2024, a Procedural Motion for alteration of the sitting time of the Senate for Wednesday, 13th and Thursday, 14th March, 2024, was moved and approved to facilitate the impeachment hearing of the Deputy Governor of Kisii County. Consequently, a hearing programme has been prepared and appended to the Order Paper for today. Hon. Senat…

Sen. Veronica and Sen. Orwoba, kindly take your seats. Hon. Senators, welcome back to this Session. Clerk, proceed to call the Order. Senator for Nandi County, and the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations---

The letter also indicated advocates to represent the County Assembly and a list of witnesses for the County Assembly. Further, vide a letter referenced CAK/3/1/C/CS/002/2024 dated 8th of March 2024, the Speaker of the County Assembly of Kisii, pursuant to Rule 10 of the Third Schedule to the Senate Standing Orders made a request to the Senate to summon Mr. David Haggai Oyagi; the Acting Director …

of the Kisii County Assembly representing the County Assembly by stating the full name and the designation of each person. Kindly, proceed.

Sen. Ledama, take your seat. Hon. Senators, ladies and gentlemen, I now similarly invite counsel for the Deputy Governor to introduce the legal team representing the Deputy Governor by stating the full name of each person appearing.

Hon. Osoro, who are those people that you are mentioning? The Lead Counsel for the Deputy Governor : Mr. Speaker, Sir, they are the Members of the County Assembly who form part of our witnesses.

[(Mr. Silvanus Osoro)]

No! No, no. That is not what I asked you to do. I asked you to give the names of the legal team representing the Deputy Governor. The Counsel for the Deputy Governor : Okay. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I also confirm that the client, His Excellency the Deputy Governor, Hon. (Dr.) Robert Monda is also present,

[(Hon. Silvanus Osoro)]

Thank you. Very well. Now, on behalf of the Senate, I welcome the team of the County Assembly, the team of the Deputy Governor, members of the public, and the media to the Senate and to these proceedings. Finally, I will now invite the Clerk to read the charges against the Hon. Dr. Robert Monda, the Deputy Governor of Kisii County.

high blood pressure and diabetes) and he was immediately transferred to Kisii Central Police Station. At Kisii Police Station, the helpless Reuben Monda Orang’i was further detained without a booking on the OB and without the option of bail or bond pending presentation to court. At one point, the sickly Monda Orang’i had to be rushed to Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital for an urgent medical …

Thank you. You may take your seat, Deputy Governor. Hon. Senators, ladies and gentlemen, at this juncture, I will allow the opening statements on behalf of the County Assembly. You have 30 minutes.

Monda in the remittance of the amount and that he had intended to remit the amount to someone who had given him service, one Gladys Aming’a who had given him transportation services. We will show you that the phone book recording by the Deputy Governor was the names of the two people who are next to each other because they are both chief officers in the Kisii County Assembly and that was just a m…

One more statement on that issue of Ms. Lucy. We will be requesting that in fairness to Dr. Monda, we recall our lives and remember that from time to time, we have made mistakes by sending money to the wrong person when we intended to send to somebody else. That mistake cannot be taken away from Dr. Monda merely because he is standing trial. On the issue of threats, Dennis Misati, the son of Jose…

One of the issues we will be asking is whether you want at the Senate level to make a choice of believing either the brother who is Reuben or Dr. Robert Monda. The second one is whether you want to take up the role of the police who are already investigating the issue. My colleagues have tried to make the issue emotive by saying that over 20 people went to arrest Dr. Monda. Our position is that h…

Counsel, that was not a threat. Indeed, you have 15 minutes. If you are not done within those 15 minutes, then you can make your plea and I will direct when we get there. The Counsel for the Deputy Governor : Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I request hon. Senators to look at the document filed by the Deputy Governor. It is marked “DG” in blue. If you look at page 56, it contains the only document w…

[(Mr. Katwa Kigen)]

Therefore, we have factually responded to all the things that Mr. Nyagaka has raised. Our main defense is that these are not issues we are responsible for. It is more of in the hands of the Chief Executive, the Governor himself; the question of a budget that had been passed by the County Assembly having been manipulated and changed after the County Assembly had passed it. The issue of the Kisii Co…

budget. If that is the case, that it is the Governor, that's our defense. It is not intended to bring into issue the Governor and his wife. It is merely meant to persuade you that, indeed, is not a ground upon which you should impeach the Governor. We would, therefore, be asking you to determine the question of the place of public participation in these proceedings because that is actually a prod…

I will give you a further 15 minutes. The Counsel for the Deputy Governor : Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. Did you say 50 minutes?

[(Mr. Katwa Kigen)]

[(Laughter)]

The Notice of Motion, Votes and Proceedings, the Order Paper, and so on. However, when the letter was being written to the Deputy Governor asking him to defend himself by a letter dated 8th March, the contents of what the Speaker of Kisii County Assembly had forwarded to this Senate were changed completely. We have a new case completely. The new document has three pages. The other one has about 20…

are seeing it for the first time. We are looking at those flash discs for the first time as we come before you. It asks us to respond to contentions from David Akai and Gladys Aming'a. All these things were not part of what was in the County Assembly and what we responded to. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we pray that you make a determination of the substantive issues in this case: Whether a case that was de…

Counsel, is the letter you are referring to specifically contained in our Volume? The Counsel for the Deputy Governor : Yes, Mr. Speaker, Sir. May I show you?

[(Mr. Katwa Kigen)]

Kindly direct the Hon. Senators to the Volume and to the page. The Counsel for the Deputy Governor : Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is in the County Assembly’s bundle Volume One at Page 335. It is practically the last page on Volume One bundle. Hon. Members, I know you might not have the letter that was written to Dr. Monda asking him to come and defend himself. Nonetheless, allow me to read the first pa…

[(Mr. Katwa Kigen)]

[(An Hon. Member spoke off record)]

Sorry, I am referring to the letter that was written to the Deputy Governor asking him to defend himself. The writer of that letter, who is from your Directorate of Legal Services, introduced things that the Speaker of the County Assembly of Kisii had not said anywhere and amongst them is the letter from Mr. Ndegwa. We have seen the letter from Mr. Ndegwa in this Assembly, for the first time. The…

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, Sir.

What is the issue, Sen. Kavindu Muthama.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I thought we should be having copies of what he is taking us through so that we can follow with him. He taking us through a process so that we can give a ruling. Therefore, we should have those documents.

Very well, hon. Senator. Counsel, again, kindly as you make your opening statement, if you are referring to a document, please indicate the volume and the page. The Counsel for the Deputy Governor : Yes, Mr. Speaker, Sir. It is Volume One of the County Assembly’s document. It is practically the last page. Unfortunately, I have to cross reference it to the letter that was written to Dr. Monda, te…

[(Mr. Katwa Kigen)]

So, is the letter to Dr. Monda contained in a different Volume? It is not within your bundle of documents? The Counsel for the Deputy Governor : Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is not in any of the bundles.

[(Mr. Katwa Kigen)]

So, can it be circulated? Clerk, that is a document from the Senate. So, can the copies be done and circulated. According to Counsel, it emanated from the Senate. The Counsel for the Deputy Governor : Yes, Mr. Speaker, Sir. It emanated from the Senate and it is a letter directly responding to the letter from the County Assembly, forwarding the material that was used to impeach the Deputy Governo…

[(Mr. Katwa Kigen)]

I give you five minutes. The Counsel for the Deputy Governor : Okay. I will ask Mr. Ochoki first, then my colleague. I hope, my friend Hon. Cherarkey will not mind. The Counsel for the Deputy Governor : Hon. Speaker and Members of the Senate, for the record, my name is Wilkins Ochoki, part of the team representing the Deputy Governor, Kisii County. Hon. Speaker, what is before this honourable …

[(Mr. Katwa Kigen)]

[(Mr. Wilkins Ochoki)]

In any case, the House needs to know the genesis of the problems in Kisii County. What exactly is on trial? It is not common that the honorable Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) can wake up one morning and determine that a deputy governor who was elected should just go home. What we want to bring out is the genesis of the problem. Very briefly, allow me just address preliminary point two withi…