Blow to Senator Orwoba as High Court upholds her 3-month suspension

Nominated Senator Gloria Orwoba has suffered a major blow after the High Court upheld a decision made by the Senate in September last year to suspend her from participating in parliamentary activities for three months for gross misconduct.

Justice Lawrence Mugambi sitting at the  High Court in Nairobi agreed with the decision made by the Senate noting that the Nominated Senator was given a chance to appear before the Powers and Privileges Committee of the Senate to defend herself but failed to do so.

Justice Mugambi said that from the word go the Senator made it clear that she was not recognizing the jurisdiction of the Senate Powers and Privileges Committee in inquiring into her conduct as a result she declared that she was not going to participate in the inquiry process and that when she appeared before the Senate she walked out.

READ: Senator Orwoba suspended for six months after ‘sexual favours’ remark

“Senator Gloria Orwoba was provided with an opportunity to appear and state her case, presumably even raising all manner of preliminary issues before the Senate Powers and Privileges Committee but she instead opted not to participate and walked out on the committee,” said Justice Mugambi.

The Judge said that he did not find an infringement of the right of the right to fair administrative action or the right to fair hearing in the circumstances of this case and therefore dismissed the petition filed by Orwoba with costs to the respondents.

Orwoba was suspended for three months by the Senate in September last year after the house adopted a recommendation made by the Powers and Privileges Committee chaired by Senate Speaker Amason Kingi following a majority decision that will see her lose several privileges enjoyed as a Senator.

Senator Orwoba will lose hefty perks and other personal benefits as a Senator until May this year when she will be required to appear before the house and apologise before being readmitted after being accused of making unsubstantiated allegations of sexual favours by some parliamentary officials.

The Nominated Senator was also accused of alleging that there was discrimination in parliament by posting various messages on the Senate Business WhatsApp group in a report made by the Powers and Privileges Committee.

ALSO READ: Why I did not defend myself, suspended Senator Gloria Orwoba speaks

Following the decision made by the house, Senator Orwoba will be restricted from accessing the precincts of parliament for the entire period of suspension nor will she be allowed to attend senate plenary and committee sessions and she will lose out on the sitting allowances.

The report stated that despite Senator Orwoba being granted an opportunity to appear before the committee to back up her claims she did not turn up which raised serious concerns about whether the allegations she had made were true.

“Senator Gloria Orwoba was given an opportunity to be heard by the Powers and Privileges Committee but the Senator declined to participate in the inquiry therefore the committee could not substantiate the claims she made,” said the report by the committee chaired by Speaker Kingi.

Senator Orwoba was also accused of disrespecting fellow senators by publishing information that was disrespectful to her colleagues, imputing improper motives on fellow Senators, a charge that was also substantiated by the Senator failing to appear before the committee to defend herself.