Why Governor Nyaribo survived impeachment: Senate rejects Nyamira MCAs’ ‘impossible’ vote

Nyamira Governor Amos Kimwomi Nyaribo survived removal from office on Wednesday not because the Senate endorsed his leadership, but because the County Assembly’s impeachment case was built on a mathematically impossible vote.

Senators voted 38–4 to uphold a preliminary objection after it emerged that the Assembly recorded 23 votes in favour of impeachment when only 19 MCAs were physically present in the chamber.

The Assembly claimed the extra four votes came through illegal proxy voting – a practice the Governor’s lawyers described as unconstitutional, unknown in Kenyan law, and outright fraudulent.

Led by Mr Elias Mutuma, Nyaribo’s legal team successfully argued that the impeachment motion dated November 11, 2025, failed basic constitutional and statutory safeguards designed to protect both the office of governor and the will of voters.

“You cannot remove a governor using votes that do not exist, nor can you cure a defective process by inventing a procedure--proxy voting--that has no legal basis in county assemblies,” Mr Mutuma told the Senate.

The defence also demolished the Assembly’s claim that three vacant wards reduced the required threshold.

They insisted constitutional voting thresholds cannot be adjusted for political convenience.

While some Senators expressed personal reservations about Nyaribo’s administration, the overwhelming majority ruled that upholding procedure and the rule of law outweighed political considerations.

Many warned that allowing the case to proceed would set a dangerous precedent, potentially enabling governors to be removed through manipulated or fictional votes in future.

By sustaining the preliminary objection, the Senate effectively killed the impeachment before evidence was heard.

The decision reinforces one clear trend. Governors are increasingly surviving Senate trials not because they are universally popular, but because MCAs continue to present procedurally flawed and poorly drafted impeachment motions.

For Nyamira, the outcome means Governor Nyaribo remains firmly in office, the County Assembly must start from scratch if it wishes to try again, and MCAs now face significant political embarrassment over an impeachment grounded in dubious arithmetic.

The collapsed Nyamira case adds to a growing list of Senate rulings where strict adherence to procedure has trumped political grievances, exposing persistent weaknesses and internal divisions within county assemblies.