Pioneer governors, who made a comeback in the 2022 election, plan to persuade the High Court to scrap the term limit policy to allow them to run again in the 2027 elections. 

The emerging development has triggered a political storm over the lacuna in law on the governors’ and their deputies’ two-term limit in office. 

Once petitioned, the court will have a duty to interpret and determine the contentious Article 180 (7) of the Constitution on the election of county chiefs and deputies which states: “A person shall not hold office as a county governor for more than two terms”. 

In Kitui, allies of Governor Julius Malombe are pushing him to run for a third term in 2027, arguing that his consecutive term was cut short in 2017 when he lost to Charity Ngilu, only to reclaim it in the last polls. 

Speaking during the burial in Kituti village Muangeni in Kitui South on Monday, former area MP Mwangu Ivuti said there was consensus that Dr Malombe’s development track record was the basis of people’s desire for him to remain in office until 2032. 

Lacuna issue 

Mwangu hoped that the Court would deal with the legal lacuna and the constitutional review and favour the governor based on the fact that he won in the 2013 elections but lost in 2017. 

The former MP told Malombe, who was present, that his allies have crafted a scheme to woo supporters that he is not going anywhere notwithstanding his constitutional term coming to end in 2027. 

He said they were fronting the governor to run for the gubernatorial seat for a third term in 2027. 

“Do you agree with me that there is unanimous consensus that our governor should remain in office until 2032?”, Mwangu asked the mourners who roared back with affirmative answers. 

He said Malombe has opened up the county through a vast road network, embedded maternal care in his county strategy and dug numerous boreholes and water pans in the water-starved county. He said these are the things that matter most to the residents. 

Mwangu said he is optimistic that the ambiguity in the election of county governors and deputies will be clarified and adjusted to enable Malombe, in particular, to serve the Kitui people diligently and satisfactorily until 2032. 

Malombe says although the 2010 Constitution limits the terms of a governor to two, he and his colleagues who served their first term in 2013 before losing their second attempt in 2017, will coalesce in a unanimous unity to seek ultimate amendment on Chapter Two, Article 180 of the Constitution. 

“I want to leave a firm legacy at the end of my term, assumingly in 2032. Some lawyers argue that governors will serve two terms whether consecutive or not. Others including lawyers say it should be amended to make the two terms consecutive. We will ask the Supreme Court for interpretation,” Malombe said. 

He said there is no doubt the contentious chapter and article in the constitution will be appropriately addressed and put straight at the appropriate time, urging his supporters and residents in the county, in general, to remain calm. 

Malombe said his dream and aspiration was to resuscitate the development and transformation’s vision and agenda for the semi-arid county, and to progressively improve residents’ livelihoods and their living standards. 

The governor says he took over a dysfunctional devolved unit which he founded in his first term in office in 2013. 

Malombe underscores his government’s achievements two years in office in bringing order, sense of direction, proper planning and execution of programmes. 

Kitui Senator and Senate Deputy Minority Leader Enoch Wambua urged the governor to initiate good communication and working strategies between his executive and him to foster unity for efficient service delivery to the common mwananchi.