Senate · Morning Sitting

Serjeant-at-Arms, kindly ring the Quorum Bell for 10 minutes. Order, hon. Senators. We now have quorum. So let us get down to today's business. Clerk, you may call the first Order.

[(The Quorum Bell was rung)]

[(The Clerk-at-the-Table consulted with the Speaker)]

Hon. Senators, I have a Communication to make relating to the business of the Senate scheduled for consideration during this solemn sitting.

You will recall that at the Special Sitting of the Senate held on Wednesday, 20th August, 2025, I appointed today, Wednesday, 27th August, 2025; Thursday, 28th August, 2025 and Friday, 29th August, 2025, as the days when the Senate will hear the charges for the proposed removal from office, by impeachment, of Hon. (Dr.) Erick Mutai, the Governor of Kericho County. Vide a Gazette Notice No.11796 d…

Hon. Senators, welcome back to the open session. Clerk, you may call the first order.

Hon. Senators, ladies and gentlemen, having dispensed with the pre-hearing meeting of the Senators, which was a closed-door session, it is now time to commence the proceedings on the proposed removal from office, by impeachment, of Hon. (Dr.) Erick Kipkoech Mutai, the Governor of Kericho County. By a letter dated 15th August, 2025, the Speaker of the Kericho County Assembly informed the Speaker o…

[(Sen. Maanzo sat at his place)]

Good morning, Mr. Speaker, Sir; Hon. Senators and Hon. Mutai, Governor, Kericho County. For the County Assembly of Kericho, the representation is as follows-

Now, similarly, I now invite Counsel for the Governor to introduce your legal team representing the Governor.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, Hon. Senators, Your Excellency, the Governor of Kericho County and my colleagues, good morning. With the permission of my senior colleague, I wish to introduce to you, the legal team representing the Governor of Kericho County. First, I wish to confirm that the Governor of Kericho County, Dr. Eric Kipkoech Mutai is before the House. The following is the legal team-

Senator for Nandi County, take your seat. Hon. Senators, on behalf of the Senate, I welcome the team for the County Assembly, the team of the Governor, members of the public and the media to the Senate and to these proceedings. Finally, I now invite the Clerk to call the next Order and thereafter to read the charges against the Hon. (Dr.) Erick Kipkoech Mutai, the Governor of Kericho County.

[(Sen. Cherarkey sat in his place)]

Allegation 1: Misappropriation, Misallocation and Illegal Drawings of County Revenue and County Finances. That, on various occasions since his election as a Governor and subsequent assumption of office, the Governor has engaged in various acts of gross violation of Articles 10, 183 and 201 of the Constitution, Sections 102 and 109 of the Public Finance Management Act, Cap. 412A and the provisions…

Governor, you may be seated. The Governor of Kericho County (Hon. (Dr.) Erick Kipkoech Mutai) : Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. Erick Kipkoech Mutai) resumed his seat)

[(The Governor of Kericho County (Hon. (Dr.)]

Now, I will call upon the County Assembly. You have 30 minutes to make your opening statement. Thereafter, it will be followed by the Governor's opening statement. It will also take 30 minutes.

Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker, Sir. Before we make the opening statement, there are certain preliminary matters that the County Assembly wished to raise. With your permission, I wish to be given the opportunity to raise them first.

You may proceed.

Thank you so much. Allow me to begin by raising the fairly simple and straightforward preliminary issue. By a letter dated 24th August, 2025, by the firm of H&K Law Advocates, on behalf of the County Assembly--- Sorry, the record may not have caught up my name. My name is Elisha Ongoya for the County Assembly of Kericho. Members of the Senate, on a light note, may wonder whether Mr. Mutuma and I …

Those arrangements are going to be made.

Thank you so much. The second preliminary issue is also relating to another letter dated 24th August, 2025 and addressed to the Clerk of this House. In context, you will notice that among the filings made by the Governor in his defence was a notice of preliminary objection, which was brought to the attention of the County Assembly when the documents were being exchanged at the Clerk's designated a…

Counsel, that preliminary objection has not been raised yet. It is on record, but it is yet to be raised. You will be given an opportunity to make that application once that preliminary objection has been raised.

Thank you. Having said that, the final is a set of documents that we also wish to be permitted to be circulated to the Senators. I will just lay a brief context for this. These are documents which, when you were informing the Senators, you drew their attention to the documents that the County Assembly brought to this House accompanying their resolution. Some of those documents, unfortunately, whe…

Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you give me permission, I can then draw your attention to the specific documents, so that then you can consider whether or not to allow them.

You may proceed.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, thank you. You will remember you read among the documents that the County Assembly presented to the Senate as payment vouchers for the Department of Agriculture. You also read payment vouchers for the Department of Lands and Physical Planning. Those documents, although accompanying the Motion and duly presented, were not reproduced in the volumes that have been given to the Hon. …

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. For record purposes, my name is Elias Mutuma. I just wanted to confirm that the documents that my learned senior has alluded to have already been supplied to counsel for the Governor through email yesterday and physical copies were delivered this morning.

Thank you.

Counsel for the Governor, do you have any objections to that request?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, and hon. Senators, we very strongly object. We strongly object to the attempt to introduce new evidence at this point. It is true that this morning as we were waiting to walk in here, we were served with the documents referred to by my colleague. The first point of our objection is that we will not have had an opportunity to have looked at them and to prepare ourselves to respon…

Mr. Speaker, Sir, and Hon. Senators, just an additional remark. If you look at paragraph 16 of the Motion and the entire Motion, there is certainly evidence which the Mover of the Motion wanted to adduce before the County Assembly. At paragraph 16 of the Motion, the Mover specifically said on the Floor that the evidence will be sought after asking the House to issue summons. Throughout the Motion,…

right to fair hearing will be severely breached if this evidence, which the County Assembly is now doing a patchwork, is introduced at this stage. Lastly, it will contravene your express, clear and unequivocal rules that no new evidence shall be introduced in the Senate if it is not part of the evidence submitted against the Governor in the County Assembly. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, may I have a brief right of reply?

Counsel, let me just make a ruling on this matter so that we make progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir.

We have heard your position. We have heard the Governor's position. If I heard the counsel for the County Assembly correctly is that the evidence related to those documents is already in our bundles, the original bundles. These documents were omitted by mistake during the compiling of those bundles. They do not introduce any new evidence as is being submitted by the Counsel for the Governor. Ther…