Lusaka High Court judge Annesie Banda-Bobo has rejected an application by Gary Nkombo and Chishimba kambwili to halt proceedings in the impeachment case, saying the duo was not a part of the matter.

This is in a case in which Kambwili, who is Roan PF member of parliament, along with Nkombo, who is Mazabuka central UPND meember of parliament, had applied for stay of proceedings after the court refused to join them to the case.

In this case, Robert Chabinga and Henry Mulenga are challenging the decision by Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini to table the impeachment motion before Parliament.

Kambwili and Nkombo had applied to join the proceedings but the judge dismissed their application saying the duo did not have sufficient interest to warrant them being joined to the case.

Judge Bobo said in her ruling on July 27, 2018, that Kambwili and Nkombo were forum shopping by seeking to be joined to judicial review on impeachment matters that were already before the Constitutional Court.

But Kambwili and Nkombo appealed to the Court of Appeal and asked judge Bobo to stay proceedings.

However, Chabinga and Mulenga raised two preliminary issues on whether or not Kambwili and Nkombo were allowed by law to apply to stay proceedings in a matter which they were not party to and that costs of proceedings be borne by them.

Kambwili and Nkombo then argued that if the court entertained the preliminary issues which bordered on their standing, the whole appeal process would be rendered an academic venture.

And after considering all the arguments, judge Bobo dismissed Kambwili and Nkombo’s application for stay with costs, saying they were not parties to the main matter and therefore had no legal standing.

“The intended joinders would like to move the court to halt proceedings even though they are not party. There is nowhere where they have pointed to which allows such a situation. The matter on which they have moved the court is not for hearing of the substantive judicial review proceedings. Rather, it is premised on the court’s decision not to allow them to be joined to the substantive proceedings,” said judge Bobo.

Judge Bobo explained that she was basing here ruling on her earlier ruling that the intended joinders were not vested with sufficient interest in the case, and as such, had no standing in the case.