• Busia senator Okiya Omtatah has stated that he had an issue with how the impeachment of former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua was orchestrated
• Omtatah claimed that significant amounts of money was used to push for Gachagua’s removal from office at the Senate level
• He said senators were offered KSh 10 million, but he declined the money, stating he could not bring himself to vote in favour of Gachagua’s removal

Busia senator Okiya Omtatah expressed dissatisfaction with how former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua was impeached from office.

Were Senators paid KSh 10 million to impeach Gachagua?

In an interview with Obinna TV, Omtatah said he did not strongly align with Gachagua’s style of politics but observed that money was allegedly paid to orchestrate his impeachment.

Omtatah stated that he can confidently admit he was offered about KSh 10 million to support Gachagua’s impeachment motion but declined the offer.

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“The Riggy thing is a tragedy because of how he was impeached. The way the impeachment was choreographed, and I can tell you this without fear of contradiction, that money was paid. They paid a deposit of seven million to people and three million after voting. I rejected the KSh 10 million,” Omtatah said.

The Busia senator stated that the National Assembly failed to secure the required amendments for Gachagua’s impeachment as outlined in Kenya’s Constitution.

He argued that the Constitution mandates that the procedure for impeaching the president should apply to the deputy president with necessary amendments, which was not followed in Gachagua’s ouster.

“A lot of the things that were being thrown at Riggy G were matters of law enforcement that needed to be taken to the OCS. We needed to have a clear procedure of how we were going to handle the impeachment of a deputy president. So by the mere fact that we were using the procedure of impeaching the president, it is disobeying the requirement that we amend it,” Omtatah said.

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Omtatah stated that, for these reasons, he could not vote in favour of Gachagua’s impeachment in the Senate.

“I had passed my message that we are violating the constitution, and I cannot live to violate the constitution. That’s why on all the 11 impeachment charges of Riggy ,G I voted No on each one of them. I cannot condemn an innocent man,” he added.