Isiolo Governor Abdi Guyo can now breathe a sigh of relief as a three-judge bench threw out a petition seeking his removal from office on grounds of party hopping.
Filed in June 2023, the petition claimed that Governor Guyo and his deputy, John Lowasa, had defected from Jubilee Party to the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), which the petitioners maintained was enough to automatically disqualify them from holding office.
But the court ruled on Friday that although party hopping remains unlawful under Kenyan law, there was no evidence to show that the two leaders had resigned or defected from their party.
The petitioners had asked the court to declare the governor and his deputy to have vacated their offices, arguing that their “automatic resignation” created a vacuum in leadership that should be filled through a by-election. They also sought conservatory orders to bar the two from running the county while the matter was being heard.
However, the judges found the accusations unsubstantiated.
Speaking after the ruling, Governor Guyo welcomed the verdict, terming the allegations baseless and politically motivated.
“These accusations were ill-intended and meant to mislead the public,” Guyo said during his address to residents who had flocked to hear his response. “The same people who started talking about impeachment are the ones behind these claims claims which have been thrown out by the court.”
He added that the judgment reaffirmed what he has maintained all along:
“The court established that there was absolutely no evidence that we ever resigned or defected from the Jubilee Party.” The throwing out of the petition means that Governor Guyo and his deputy retain their jobs, finally ending a two-year legal battle that had thrown the leadership of the county into uncertainty.