Ruto seeks to block sacking of allies
Photo/FILE William Ruto (above) and Aden Duale, who have openly declared their association with United Democratic Movement, are also listed among the applicants seeking an injunction against Local Government minister Musalia Mudavadi.
By NATION TEAM
Posted Wednesday, July 6 2011 at 20:49
Posted Wednesday, July 6 2011 at 20:49
A group of councillors has gone to court seeking its intervention to avert the revocation of their nomination.
The councillors, who had been nominated by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), face the sack after the electoral commission recommended to Local Government minister Musalia Mudavadi to revoke their positions.
On Wednesday, the 44 councillors filed an urgent application at the High Court seeking an injunction against the minister.
ODM members of Parliament William Ruto and Aden Duale, who have openly declared their association with United Democratic Movement, are also listed among the applicants.
They want the court to quash the Interim Independent Electoral Commission’s recommendation to revoke their positions.
Mr Mudavadi has said he is yet to receive formal communication regarding the situation but when he does, he would execute it.
His office, he said, had the mandate to carry out such orders.
The councillors want that order, if granted, to stay in force until their application is determined, arguing that IIEC violated the law.
In a statement to court, Mr Duale says that he is not aware of any ODM meeting which discussed the status of the councillors in the party or recommended their sacking.
Mr Mudavadi has sacked three Bomet councillors allied to rebel ODM MP Isaac Ruto.
Nominated councillors from Bomet and Sotik constituencies whose MPs Beatrice Kones and Joyce Laboso, are allies of Prime Minister Raila Odinga were not affected by the sackings.
The Chepalungu MP’s association with Mr Ruto, the suspended Higher Education minister, is seen by many to have been the cause of the sacking of councillors Hassan Kirui, Richard Sigei and John Kirui. The three said they read “mischief” in the action.
Double standards
They accused Mr Mudavadi of double standards arguing that the minister had written to them extending their tenure by three years.
The minister at the same time is said to have written to the Bomet county council authorising it to guarantee loans which the councillors applied for following extension of their stay in office.
The sacked councillors said following the assurance by the minister, they received the loans and by the time of their firing, they owed a local bank loans ranging from Sh80,000 to Sh120,000.
They stated that they were still in ODM and that they were the party’s location chairmen and queried the criteria used to sack them.
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