By SAM OMWENGA
The unfolding drama surrounding Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s impeachment is intriguing on so many levels. It is nothing and will not be anything compared to what we have seen before involving governors.
For a governor, one can say it is a small fish being chased by MCAs for various reasons, ranging from personal to political ones, but rarely anything other governors are not guilty of.
It’s all a matter of degree. Whatever the reasons or motivation, once the governor is impeached by the MCAs, the matter next goes to the Senate for a trial and removal if the charges are proven.
The Constitution provides two impeachment routes: By plenary, where all 67 senators consider the allegations before voting, and by way of a selection committee of 11 senators.
If the matter goes in the committee route and the select committee finds the charges have not been substantiated, the governor is spared removal from office and resumes his or her duties as governor.
In other words, the plenary, in that case, has no input, and the motion fails after the committee drops the charges. However, if the committee confirms even one charge, the Senate must vote in plenary to determine whether the charges have been substantiated.
Since the advent of the impeachment procedures under the 2010 constitution, most of those tried through a special committee were left off the hook after the small select committee exonerated them of the charges levelled by the MCAs.
Of the cases handled by the Senate, only retired Embu governor Martin Wambora and former Wajir governor Ahmed Mahamud were impeached, but the courts spared them removal from office.
This is our first time witnessing impeachment for a deputy president. Yes, there were muted efforts to try to have then-Deputy President William Ruto impeached, but whoever was doing the vote counting or whipping quickly determined and advised State House that it would be a futile exercise as there were not enough votes to pass an impeachment motion, let alone enough votes to remove him from office.
By then, Ruto had become the proverbial untouchable, unshakable and, unbeknownst to many, unstoppable on his way to State House.
What is so ironic and a headscratcher is that on April 16, 2021, no doubt confident he would beat the odds and become president, and while Ruto was under siege from state operatives who were busy trying to neuter him politically with the tacit approval from higher-ups, Ruto vowed that should he become president, he would never allow his deputy to be so mistreated and humiliated.
“Very many deputy presidents have been fought. It is an unfortunate situation. Given an opportunity, I would not allow my deputy president to be humiliated the way former (deputy) presidents have been humiliated and the way I have been humiliated,” said Ruto.
When cracks appeared between the short-lived bromance between Ruto and Gachagua barely a year into their relationship, the first question people asked was why and, even more importantly, what triggered the forces that turned the crack into the gaping hole Gachagua is about to be thrown into?
First, Gachagua committed the biggest offence anyone can do to an African president, let alone a Kenyan president.
He believed and wanted everyone to believe he was equal to the president and frequently lauded the fact that both were elected and, therefore, Ruto had nothing over him.
That was mistake number one. Second, and mistake number two, actually happened before this and this was Gachagua’s initially trashing retired President Uhuru Kenyatta and later tormenting the Kenyatta family, complete with unforgivable insults of Mama Ngina.
Third, Gachagua wrongly assumed that by chest-thumping about how he was ensuring Mt Kenya got its half of the pie from the UDA government, the rest of the country be damned, that somehow this would turn him into an indispensable and untouchable Mt Kenya kingpin.
Gachagua did all this with his unbridled and always antagonistic when not tribal, jingoism. This is why Gachagua’s goose is cooked.
He sought forgiveness, but the damage was already done. As a Christian, I wouldn’t say God did not answer his prayers.
Sam Omwenga, Legal analyst and political commentator