Impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has sensationally claimed supporters of his ouster motion called the hospital where he had been admitted, asking if he was dead.
Speaking to journalists as he left Karen Hospital on Sunday, Gachagua noted that while some asked whether he was dead, others asked if he would survive or recover.
“They were celebrating. It is the most unfortunate thing that has ever happened to this country,” he stated.
Gachagua said the confirmation of his impeachment by the Senate on Thursday was a culmination of continuous persecution and stress for a year.
“For the last one year, it has been very difficult for me but I have been very persevering,” he said.
Gachagua’s impeachment trial took an unexpected turn on Thursday after he failed to appear during the afternoon session when he was scheduled to take the witness stand.
Minutes after his legal team said they could not trace him, they announced that they had received information that the Deputy President had been taken ill.
Gachagua is suffering from intense chest pains, his lawyer Paul Muite has said.
Muite told the Senate he was, however, not able to talk to the DP in person on the advice of doctors attending to him.
“I would like to inform honourable senators that I was able to contact doctors at Karen Hospital. There is a team of doctors who are looking after the Deputy President. Because of his condition, I was not able to talk to him directly,” Muite said.
“I was, however, informed by his doctors that he is currently suffering from intense chest pains. I did not want to inquire beyond that.”
Muite made the submissions when proceedings resumed after Speaker Amason Kingi adjourned the afternoon sitting until 5 pm when Gachagua failed to show up.
Senior counsel James Orengo told the Senate that lawyers for Gachagua needed to present evidence that their client is indeed unwell.
Orengo argued that the House just relied on what Muite told senators.
“For the DP to fail to bring evidence that he is admitted....We are just relying on what Muite is saying,” he said.
He argued that the DP should have sent one of the doctors here to tell the House about his admission and condition stating that Gachagua was in the House the entire morning session.