Sonko moves to EAC court challenges Supreme Court verdict

Former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko has moved to the East African Court of Justice to challenge the Supreme Court's decision to uphold his impeachment. 

 Sonko, who is now seeking Mombasa gubernatorial seat, was ousted from office after the Senate affirmed his impeachment in 2020.

While filing his appeal at the regional court's sub-registry in Nairobi, the troubled politician wanted the court to certify his suit urgent and temporarily stop the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment which was delivered on Friday by a seven judge bench led by Chief Justice Martha Koome.

"Sonko is gravely and fundamentally aggrieved by the decision of the Supreme Court of Kenya and in the manner in which the said court, and the courts below (High Court and Court of Appeal) conducted the said proceedings contrary to the rule of law and the rules of natural justice with the resultant effect of a grave injustice and miscarriage of justice being visited upon him," reads the court papers. 

He claims that actions by the Apex courts were in breach of Articles 6 (d); and 7 (2); of the Treaty of the Establishment the East African Community "in that he has been discriminated against and has been selectively persecuted".

"His fundamental political rights and freedoms were illegally, unlawfully, and unjustifiably curtailed over a flawed judicial process tainted and marred by illegalities, lack of transparency, lack of accountability and failure to adhere to the rule of law," his lawyers say. 

"The decision by the Supreme Court of Kenya and the courts of Kenya was arrived at in an unjust manner, contrary to the above cited principles and the effect of the said decision is to curtail the political rights of Sonko and the people he represents," they argue.