The bid to remove Nyamira Governor Amos Nyaribo from office collapsed on Wednesday evening after Senators voted overwhelmingly to stop the impeachment process before it even began.
With 38 Senators in support and only four opposed, the Senate upheld a preliminary objection filed by the Governor’s defence team — effectively shutting down the case and preventing it from moving to a full hearing.
How a Procedural Battle Stopped the Impeachment
Earlier in the day, Nyaribo’s lawyers had delivered a pair of objections that went straight for the spine of the impeachment motion.
First, they argued that the motion dated November 11, 2025 simply failed to meet the constitutional and statutory threshold for removing a county governor.
Their submission branded the County Assembly’s resolution as “invalid and incompetent”, insisting it did not satisfy the strict requirements under Article 181 of the Constitution and Section 33 of the County Governments Act.
Their second objection targeted the most controversial element of the Nyamira vote: proxy voting.
Led by lawyer Elias Mutuma, the defence dismissed proxy voting as “illegal, unknown to law and null and void.” The team insisted that discrepancies in the vote tally were not technical errors but the result of fraud, forgery and misrepresentation.
The Numbers That Didn’t Add Up
According to the Governor’s legal team, only 19 MCAs were physically present during the impeachment vote — yet the final tally showed 23 votes in favour of ousting Nyaribo.
To them, that outcome was not just suspicious, but “numerically impossible.”
The lawyers also challenged the Assembly’s argument that its membership had reduced from 35 to 32 due to three vacant seats, calling the claim illogical and unsupported by law.
On the other side, the County Assembly counsel defended the use of proxy voting and claimed that supporting letters existed to justify the additional votes. They argued that although the Standing Orders do not explicitly provide for proxy voting, the Speaker had the discretion to permit it under Standing Order No. 1, which allows him to interpret or fill procedural gaps.
Senate Delivers the Final Word
Before voting, Senators made lengthy submissions — some warning against procedural shortcuts by the Assembly, others stressing the importance of safeguarding due process for both the Governor and the people of Nyamira.
But when the bell rang, the verdict was clear: the objections stood.
And with that single decision, the Senate brought the impeachment process against Governor Amos Nyaribo to an abrupt and decisive end.
