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A section of senators have torn into the evidence adduced by Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse to support his impeachment motion against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, with some terming it a wild goose chase.
The Senate is Thursday night set to vote on the motion in an unprecedented process in the country’s history that could see Gachagua go into the history books as the first deputy president to be impeached.
The vote will, however, be taken in the absence of the DP after he was taken ill to the Karen hospital with chest pains moments before he was to take the stand to defend himself.
A request by his legal team to adjourn hearings to Tuesday to allow him time to recover and appear in the House was shot down prompting the lawyers and a number of senators opposed to his ouster to walk out of the chamber.
Mutuse in his motion cited 11 grounds on which he wants the DP sent packing, grounds which the National Assembly upheld on October 8 after 281 MPs voted to support Gachagua’s removal from office against 44 who opposed the move.
While commenting on the day’s developments Thursday night ahead of voting, Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said Mutuse’s evidence against the DP fell short of the threshold needed to impeach the DP.
He in particular took issue with the MP’s allegation that the DP accumulated wealth to the tune of Sh5.2 billion within just two years of service in office way beyond his known source of income that would come to about Sh24 million.
“Even on unexplained wealth, Mr Speaker, you saw the mover did not give us a wealth declaration form from the EACC to show us the unexplained wealth of the deputy president. The grounds that have been adduced in the House stand on quicksand,” the legislator said.
“And if you realise on the 11 grounds, the mover was on a fishing expedition,” he added.
Cherargei said he’s alive to the fact that the impeachment could pass purely on the strength of it being a political process even in the absence of criminal culpability, but senators have the leeway to exercise discretion.
“I know that today, the decision that we will make today is not about the deputy president, it’s about justice to the deputy president, justice to the people of Kenya [and] justice to each and every Kenyan who voted for the deputy president.”
Nyandarua Senator John Methu, who said he opposes the impeachment motion, called on fellow legislators to follow suit and shoot down the motion, saying it lacks substance.
“When questions were being asked, he [Mutuse] said, ‘I don’t have a problem with company one; I don’t have a problem with company two, maybe I might have a problem in future but the deputy president must be removed from office’,” he said.
Methu further warned of a painful political divorce if Gachagua is impeached.
"The only crime that Gachagua has committed is a political crime that has led to his removal, whether he’s in hospital or not. That can only happen if it has the direct sanctioning of President Ruto," Methu said.
His Kitui counterpart, Enoch Wambua
said Mutuse’s allegations were laced with innuendos, hearsay
and generalities that could not prove anything criminal on the DP's side.
Kiambu Senator Karung'o Thang'wa told the House that they may be impeaching the DP on allegations of ‘at first sight.’
"We don’t even love at first sight nowadays but we have made the process of impeaching the DP so easy than kicking out a nagging boyfriend or girlfriend," Thang'wa said.
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah on his part said, "I stand here to defend the oath of office that I took to defend the Constitution of Kenya, and that includes giving the devil his due. An impeachment is not a vote of no confidence."