The proposed removal from office of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua through impeachment continues to draw varied reactions from opinion shapers as the National Assembly readies to debate the motion on Tuesday.
Mover and drafter of the ouster motion, Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse, has cited 11 grounds on which he wants Gachagua shown the door just two years after he ascended to power as President William Ruto’s principal assistant.
Attempts by the DP to halt the possible career-ending ouster through multiple court applications have come a cropper, the latest on Monday where the court declined to issue interim orders to stop the impeachment motion following a petition filed by former UDA Secretary General, Cleophas Malala.
Other than the courts, Gachagua on Sunday sought forgiveness from the President and MPs in what observers deemed a last-ditch attempt by the DP to prick his boss’ conscience into intervening and saving his political career from sudden death.
“I want to ask my brother, President William Ruto, if in our zeal to work I have wronged you, please find it in your heart to forgive me. To our MPs, if in the course of duty, through our utterances and actions, we have upset or wronged you, find it in your heart to forgive me,” the DP said.
He spoke during a prayer service at the National Altar at his official residence in Karen, Nairobi.
A total of 291 MPs appended their signatures in support of the impeachment motion in which Mutuse partly accuses the DP of having a condescending attitude towards other leaders and undermining the President.
Daadab MP Farah Maalim said Gachagua’s apology might be too little too late, coming less than 48 hours prior to Tuesday’s debate that could seal his fate.
The former deputy speaker of the National Assembly said the DP‘s goose is as good as cooked owing to his conduct in recent days when talk on the impeachment gained momentum.
“How do you ask for forgiveness when you skipped Presidential functions in your own backyard? When you citicised the decisions of the President as the final appointing authority?” Maalim asked.
The MP said the DP might have as well sealed his fate when he held a parallel press conference in Mombasa on a day the President was in Nairobi unveiling the faces of his new Cabinet at State House.
“What happened to the old noble principle of collective responsibility in governance? Farah Posed.
This, the MP adds, coupled with Gachagua’s previous remarks that the Kenya Kwanza government was like a company with shareholders, adds to the DP’s woes and makes it a little difficult for the President to come to his aid.
“The list goes on and on. Gachagua you made your bed, sleep on it now. The President has no powers to save your skin now,” Maalim said.
“Go to Parliament and beg MPs for forgiveness. They will invariably not listen to you, but it’s a good lesson in Statecraft for posterity,” he added.
Speaking on TV47 Monday morning, former ICT Minister and ex-majority leader in the Senate, Samuel Poghisio, said the DP’s apology might serve as self-indictment as far as the accusations levelled against him are concerned.
"The noose is tightening on him, and the apology is neither here nor there. When you are in a crisis like this, what you say can be used against you in the trial, so you have to be very careful not to acknowledge that you have wronged,” he said.
“I only hope that the President heard him, and by the way, it’s only the President who can save his situation. Parliament things have gone so far,” Poghisio added.
He said banking on the Senate to save isn’t feasible if he gets impeached in the National Assembly. “Once you’ve been impeached by one House, you can only pray that the numbers in the other House don’t add up but an apology is not going to help you anywhere.”