Impeached Leaders Should Be Disqualified from Seeking Public Office – Transparency International

By Judy Jerono Transparency International Kenya wants leaders who had been impeached before to be denied the chance to seek public office positions in the coming elections. According to the Executive Director Sheila Masinde is that the suspected leaders who have been impeached for misusing public funds should be disqualified from serving the citizens. “Chapter six is very clear that once you have been removed from office then you should be disqualified from seeking public office again.” Masinde said The TI-Kenya Executive Director gave the examples of the former Kiambu County Governor Ferdinand Waititu and The former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko who were impeached and removed from office. He Mentioned Sonko who has been given a party ticket to vie in the Mombasa gubernatorial race despite having a history of abusing public office. “People like Sonko and ‘Baba Yao’ (Waititu) and others who have been impeached are those who we don’t expect to see in the final ballot, but we are still waiting for the court on the direction that they give,” said the TI-Kenya Executive Director. Last week TI filed a case in the High Court seeking interpretation and direction to guide the fate of the mentioned individuals where the TI director said they are waiting for the outcome where they also issue the case on the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) slowing the cases of corruption against politicians. “I hold that it doesn’t hold water to state that the reason why you are not going against these politicians is that you are giving them unnecessary political mileage and another excuse is that in any case these three to four months the cases will not be concluded,” he said. The TI-Kenya questioned why other cases take a shorter time as six months to be solved, unlike the corruption cases which take years.