The Kirinyaga County Assembly has disobeyed court orders that barred the Privileges and Powers committee from sitting to discuss MCA David Mathenge’s alleged inciteful statements.
The court had yesterday issued orders barring the committee from sitting to discuss Mathenge’s issue for three days and ordered the assembly to be served.
Today, Justice Richard Mwongo was told that even though they were served with the order, the committee still proceeded with the meeting in absentia Mathenge.
Lawyer Danstan Omari for Mathenge confirmed to court that they had indeed served the county assembly by close of business yesterday and even effected a physical service today morning.
The County assembly lawyer said they had not filed any responses to the case but said they intend to file a preliminary objection to the application by Mathenge.
In his directions, Justice Richard Mwongo directed the assembly to file the PO before October 9 and Mathenge to respond before October 11.
Meanwhile, the court has suspended the execution of the outcome of the meeting held today by the committee to discuss Mathenge for 14 days.
The case will be mentioned on October 12.
In the case, Mathenge through lawyer Dasntan Omari has challenged the decision by the committee to summons him saying it’s all settling political scores.
Mathenge was summoned to appear before Committee for purportedly issuing false utterances, inciteful and misleading information and also demonstrated disrespect to members of the County Assembly.
Omari had argued that his client would have suffered irreparable harm and lose out on the international trip coming up next week as he is likely to be suspended from the Assembly and therefore the people of Baragwi Ward will not be able to have any representative in the assembly for a while.
According to court papers, MCAs are set to travel out of the Country as from October 10 and the move by the County to recall the initial summons and the issuance of fresh summons is a clear indication that it wants to frustrate and lock him out so that he does not attend the international trip.
“it’s clear that the Assembly is out here for a witch hunt because none of the people has ever complained since 4th March, 2023 that is if indeed the utterances were made by the applicant up until recently when the assembly is preparing to go for an international trip as from the 10th October, 2023,” reads court papers.
