Lawyer Wants Court to Stop Retiring Governors from Contesting other Elective Seats

A Mombasa based lawyer has moved to court to block second term governors from contesting the National Assembly and Senate seats saying that it amounts to conflict of interest.

Advocate Caroline Chilango who is also contesting for the Kilifi Senate seat argues that once governors are allowed to contest and successfully elected as MPs, they might interfere with audit queries in their former jurisdiction since they will not be able to carry out their oversight roles diligently.

“If the governors will be allowed to vie for the above mentioned elective positions it will water down the senate and parliamentary oversight roles in the counties since the players will work hard to frustrate or influence audit results and outcomes,” she says.

She added that most outgoing governors were at the moment confused since the constitution was mum on where they will move to after the expiry of their terms.

Most Governors have declared to either go for constituency or senator seats in their respective counties but the move has been condemned by several players including MPs and a section of senators.

“The law has a lacuna where we don’t know where the outgoing governors will be placed after their term ends and this petition is meant to seek the court’s interpretation on the matter,” she said.