Hospitalised but impeached; Gachagua sent home as Senate seals fate in dramatic ouster

Rigathi Gachagua has been ousted from office as deputy president after senators voted to uphold his impeachment by the National Assembly.

The ousted DP was felled on five charges, which the Senate found to have been substantiated.

Fifty-four out of 66 senators endorsed the first charge related to Gachagua’s controversial “shareholding” remarks. This represented 80.3 per cent of the vote.

Only 13 senators, 19.7 per cent, opposed the first charge of the impeachment motion in an electronic voting process.

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Forty-five senators were needed to sink Gachagua, who was also condemned on the fourth charge by 51 senators. Sixteen voted no on the charge, which involved undermining the independence of judges.

Charge five was supported by 49 with 16 voting no. Two abstained. The charge involved breaching his oath of office.

Forty-eight senators voted to uphold charge six, with 18 voting against the accusations of breaching the National Cohesion and Integration Act. One abstained.

Gachagua was condemned on the ninth charge by 46 senators, with 20 voting to save him. One abstained from the vote that involved attacking the National Intelligence Service.

The second charge was endorsed by 28 senators, with 39 voting against it. The third charge was defeated by 45 senators, with 19 endorsing it. Three senators abstained on the third matter.

The seventh charge, relating to money laundering allegations, was defeated by 53 senators. Thirteen found that the charge had been substantiated with one senator abstaining. Charge eight on contravening the Penal Code was equally defeated, 40 against 27.

The 10th charge on insubordination was defeated 45 to 22. The 11th, bullying, was defeated 47 to 18, with two senators abstaining. It was unclear how those who cast their votes manually voted.

A majority of the charges were centred on Gachagua’s remarks that equated the government to a shareholding entity, which many senators found inflammatory.

“If there is one charge that will send the deputy president home it is charge one,” Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi said at the close of debate.

According to the Constitution, Gachagua ceased to hold office when the senators voted to uphold his impeachment.

“If at least two-thirds of all the members of the Senate vote to uphold any impeachment charge, the (Deputy) President shall cease to hold office,” Article 145 (7) of the Constitution states.

The National Assembly is today expected to hold a special sitting to, ostensibly, vote on Gachagua’s replacement. By the time of going to press at 12am, Senate Speaker Amason Kingi had not published the Senate’s resolution in the Kenya Gazette.

The former DP was unlikely to survive the extremely partisan vote. President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga's allies teamed up to remove Gachagua from office.

Futile attempt

Gachagua got most of his support from senators from his Mt Kenya backyard and those from former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper Party, which opposed Gachagua’s removal from office.

Some 281 Members of Parliament had voted to impeach the ex-DP at the National Assembly. In a futile attempt to save his job, he could only raise 44 MPs. One MP abstained during the National Assembly vote.

The MPs condemned him on all 11 charges of violating the Constitution, committing crimes and gross misconduct he faced during a largely one-sided debate at the National Assembly.

Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse tabled the impeachment motion, which only needed the support of 233 MPs to sail through. Some 291 MPs supported its tabling, proof that Gachagua would need a miracle to save his skin.

With his ouster comes the death of a political career just beginning. The ex-DP, the first ever to be removed through impeachment, has barely served two years in the country’s second-highest office. He served a five-year term as Mathira MP (2017 to 2022) before he was picked as Dr Ruto’s running mate ahead of the last general election.

Gachagua, earlier taken ill, was not in the Senate chamber to witness his political career was ended. His removal from office by impeachment means he cannot hold political office in future.

The former DP did not give his testimony as he had requested, leaving senators to weigh the prosecution’s testimony, led by Mutuse and two other witnesses.

Ben Mulwa, a former acting chief executive of the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority, presented evidence of being bullied by the former DP. Abdi Mohamud, the deputy CEO of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, attempted to tie Gachagua to corruption allegations.

Defence lawyers had attempted to show that the prosecution had failed to provide evidence to support their case. The National Assembly argued that they did not need to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt as impeachment was a political process.