The Senate will undertake the process of impeaching Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in a whole-house setting. Photo: The Senate of Kenya. Source: Twitter
The Leader of the Majority in the upper legislative house, Kericho senator Aaron Cheruiyot, had moved a motion proposing that an 11-member committee be elected to revise the charges that led to Gachagua’s impeachment
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Cheruiyot picked his Nairobi colleague Edwin Sifuna to second the proposition motion, but the latter declined it.
Sifuna cited the magnitude of the matter and the public’s attention to it, which he suggested would not be properly handled by a select committee.
“Indeed, this is a matter that is extremely unique and has elicited immense public attention, and therefore, Mr Speaker, given the mood of the House and especially on the minority side, I respectfully decline to second that motion,” said Sifuna amid approval from the rest of the House.
With the foregoing, Speaker Amason Kingi, while citing the standing orders of the House, ruled that the trial of the deputy president would be in plenary sessions after the motion proposing a select committee lacked a seconder.
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“The Senate Majority Leader moved a motion for the establishment of a special committee to investigate the proposed removal from office by impeachment of Rigathi Gachagua, the motion failed to get a seconder. Standing orders state that the question on any motion shall not be proposed unless it is seconded, and any motion not seconded shall be deemed to have been withdrawn and shall not be moved in the same session…the proposal for a special committee is therefore defeated . The Senate will therefore with the investigation of Gachagua’s impeachment in plenary,” said Kingi.
The Speaker charged the clerk of the House with serving the invitations to the deputy president and his team before Monday, October 14, ahead of the trial sessions on Wednesday, October 16, and Thursday, October 17.
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This was after 11 charges were listed against him.
Only 44 strived to save him.
In his final orders, National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula said the vote outcome, having attained the two-thirds, was that the House resolved to impeach the deputy president.
In the Senate, the deputy president’s impeachment will stand if at least two-thirds of the senators uphold the charges against him.
To be impeached, Gachagua was accused of, among others, unlawfully acquiring assets inconsistent with his salary and violating several laws, including the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act, undermining the president and the Cabinet by making unilateral public statements inconsistent with the government’s policy positions, and alleged involvement in crimes under sections 45 (1), 46, 47 (a) (3), and 48 (1) of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act and sections 2, 3, 4, and 7 of Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act.
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