Rigathi Gachagua has been impeached by the Senate as the Deputy President following a tumultuous trial that concluded on Thursday, October 17.
The Senate upheld the National Assembly’s earlier vote, which cited 11 allegations against him, including corruption, abuse of office, and incitement of ethnic discord.
“All Senators are eligible to cast their votes and we are going to vote for the charges separately. So we are going to vote 11 times,” Senate speaker Amason Kingi announced before they started voting.
The Senate voted on each of the eleven allegations levelled against Gachagua attaining the 2/3rds which is 45 Senators.
On Ground 1, Gross violation of Articles 10 (2) (a), (b) and (c); 27 (4), 73 (1) (a) and (2)(b); 75 (1)(c), and 129 (2) of the Constitution and Articles 147 (1), as read with Article 131 (2) (c) and (d) of the Constitution, 54 Senators voted in favour while 13 opposed.
The threshold is that Gachagua needed to be found guilty on one of the charges meaning he stood impeached with the first charge. The Senators voted to uphold five charges out of the eleven.
This historic decision makes him the first deputy president in Kenya to be removed from office under the revised constitution since 2010, preventing him from holding public office in the future.
Prior to this, Gachagua was on Tuesday, October 8, impeached by the National Assembly on grounds of money laundering and gross misconduct among other allegations.
The motion was supported by 281 members, and opposed by 44, with 1 member absent.
“According to the results of the division on the motion that I’ve just declared, a total of 281 being more than two-thirds of the members of the National Assembly have voted in support of the motion. Article 145 (2a) of the Constitution provides that “if a motion under clause 1 is supported by at least two-thirds of the members of the National Assembly, the Speaker shall inform the Speaker of the Senate of the resolution within two days.
“In this regard, I’ll proceed to discharge the similar duty placed on me by article 145 (2b) of the Constitution under which to notify the Speaker of the Senate of the resolution of the National Assembly,” National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula announced.
The Senate proceeding on Thursday was filled with drama including Gachagua failing to take the witness stand as earlier expected.
The Deputy President was expected to take the stand at exactly 2:30 PM.
However, by 3 PM, Gachagua was yet to take the stand forcing his team, led by Senior Counsel Paul Muite to leave the chamber in search of the DP.
In a fresh twist, moments after walking out of the chamber, the Senior Counsel came back into the House and told Senators that the DP was very sick and had been taken to the hospital.
“The deputy president has been coming here absolutely punctually every day, the reality is that the deputy president of the Republic of Kenya has been taken sick; very sick. And as I am addressing these honorable Senators, he is in hospital,” he said.
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