Ousted Elachi obtains court order suspending her impeachment
Just hours after her ouster as the Speaker of Nairobi County Assembly, Beatrice Elachi on Thursday evening obtained temporary orders suspending her impeachment.
Through her lawyer, James Macharia Mwangi, Ms Elachi rushed to the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi seeking to stop the impeachment arguing that the decision was irrational and wants it nullified.
Lady Justice Maureen Onyango certified the matter urgent and issued a conservatory order stopping the Assembly and its service board from removing her from office as speaker or appointing a new nominee until all the parties are heard.
ABUSE OF OFFICE
The Assembly and the Board have also been restrained from interfering with the petitioner’s execution of her duties as speaker pending the inter-partes hearing of the application.
“The respondents, their agents and/or persons acting under their direction are hereby restrained from interfering with the petitioner’s execution of the duties of her office as Speaker pending the inter partes hearing of this application,” read in part the Court order.
The case will be heard on Tuesday September 11, 2018.
Ms Elachi was impeached by the Assembly on Thursday after the MCAs accused her of abuse of office and sabotage of assembly operations.
Jubilee and Nasa MCAs for once teamed up for unanimous verdict, with 103 members voting to oust her, two voted no, while two others abstained.
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But speaking earlier on Thursday while in Malindi, Ms Elachi urged the MCAs to shelve the idea and embrace dialogue instead.
She termed the discussion of her conduct a “non-issue” and challenged the disgruntled MCAs to discuss the issues affecting Nairobi, the challenges, and how to deal with them.
Ms Elachi denied the allegations leveled against her and challenged the disgruntled MCAs to resign instead of “running the whole night discussing her” since they were elected to serve the people and not “to bring drama everyday”.
“I know they are frustrated. They have loans, have not received their salaries but we cannot vent frustration this way. I want to plead with the members to look at country’s financial situation, and the situation right now is that we do not have resources,” she said.