The governors and other county officials affected can now be arrested and detained after the High Court in Kiambu cancelled conservatory orders that had temporarily protected them from the police.
On Tuesday, Justice Bahati Mwamuye removed the interim orders which had changed the course of events since the orders issued on 8 April that had prohibited the police from making a call, arresting, or detaining county big bosses on issues related to directives from the Senate and the National Assembly.
The initial orders were provisional until the hearing of the application filed on 7 April by the petitioners Ashton Ngugi Gichuhi and Charles Mugane was heard. The case however took a new twist when one of the petitioners, Charles Mugane, told the court they had submitted a new application to get permission to amend the petition.
Now, the petitioners want to make a direct constitutional challenge to some provisions of the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Act, arguing that the law is at odds with the constitution and needs to be directly interpreted by the court.
Justice Mwamuye decided that the changes proposed had altered the original case’s legal foundations to a large extent, so it was essential to annul the previous conservatory orders. The court ordered the amended petition and application to be served to all the parties.
