Kajiado North MP Onesmus Ngogoyo has dismissed as hot air evidence tabled by Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse to impeach Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Mutuse has in his motion tabled on September 26 listed 11 grounds on which he wants the Deputy President removed from office, including advancing ethnic division, gross violation of the constitution, economic crimes, undermining the President, insubordination, and accumulating suspect wealth to the tune of Sh5.2 billion, among other allegations.
The DP has denied all the charges and is due to appear before the National Assembly at 5 pm Tuesday to put up his defence against the charges he termed "outrageous.”
While debating on the impeachment motion, Ngogoyo opposed the removal of the DP from office, saying the evidence relied upon by Mutuse is shallow.
“Mwengi Mutuse says that all we need to do is just believe the things he has tabled here are true. I have gone through the evidence that he has provided on some of the issues, and Mr Speaker, having 21 companies, according to Mwengi Mutuse, is an intention for the Deputy President to launder money, and therefore he should be impeached,” he said.
The legislator said his Kibwezi West counterpart wants the House to take at face value that whereas there’s no evidence money was lost via the said companies, there’s an intended commission of crime by the DP using the entities.
“And he says it’s enough for this House to just believe and therefore, impeach. Mr Speaker, I say no to that impeachment.”
Ngogoyo said Mutuse’s evidence in chief is laced with hearsay and innuendos without material evidence to support his accusations against the DP.
The lawmaker said the accusations that the DP only makes development initiatives that benefit his Mt Kenya backyard are inaccurate, as Gachagua has visited his Kajiado North constituency countless times.
He said Enoomatasian Girls Secondary School, the only girls’ school in his constituency, got new classrooms courtesy of the DP’s visit.
“Mr Speaker Mwengi Mutuse did not mention such issues but he says according to him, coerced, did one two three things and he just wants us to believe," he said.
Ngogoyo said Mutuse's impeachment motion lacks the evidentiary threshold to impeach a DP and is at best, dead on arrival.
"Impeaching a Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya needs more evidence than what he has provided.
“I find this to be very shallow and maybe in the words of the Chief Justice, this is hot air, in my opinion.”