Sonko fights expulsion order
What you need to know:
- MP argues that the registrar kicked him out before he could challenge expulsion
Makadara MP Gidion Mbuvi has lodged an appeal against a decision by the registrar of political parties to strike off his name from the Narc-Kenya register.
Mr Mbuvi, popularly known as Mike Sonko, filed the appeal in the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal on Monday.
Mr Mbuvi argues that he had already expressed his intentions to appeal before the registrar, Ms Lucy Ndung’u, took the decision to expel him.
He argues that Narc-K made the decision to kick him out on October 18 and he filed the appeal notice the following day.
The law requires an appeal to be lodged within seven days after the decision has been made by the party.
“The decision taken by the registrar was done arbitrarily and in total disregard of the provisions of both the Political Parties Act and the Constitution that the registrar has sworn to uphold,” Mr Mbuvi says in his appeal notice.
He now wants the registrar to be compelled to explain why she made the decision yet the matter had not been determined by the Tribunal.
Different signatures
The MP also wants the Tribunal to discuss the conduct of the registrar after her office sent two letters — one to Narc-K and another to his lawyers — on the same date but with different signatures.
The letter to Narc-K, and which has the same reference number as that sent to the MP, is signed by Ms Ndung’u while the latter is signed on her behalf by an officer in her office. The Nation has copies of both letters.
“Ceased with the provisions of the Narc-K Constitution, what motivation did the registrar have to unilaterally and hastily make the ill-considered decision?” asks Mr Mbuvi in his letter to the Tribunal.
The High Court in Nairobi last week temporarily stopped Narc-K from expelling the MP.
It also barred the registrar and the Attorney General from effecting the expulsion until the hearing of all parties in the application.
If the decision to expel him from the party is upheld, the Speaker may declare his seat vacant, prompting a by-election.
Mr Mbuvi got into trouble with the party that sponsored him to Parliament after he allegedly campaigned for a rival candidate in the recent Kamukunji by-election.
