Africa-Press – Kenya. As the plot to impeach embattled Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua from office continues to thicken, the second in command is facing the biggest battle of his political career, but he has so far remained unbowed vowing to challenge the ouster to the very end.
DP Gachagua in a televised speech on October 7, dismissed claims that he was contemplating resigning before he is kicked out. Many people have speculated that the deputy president may step aside because he harbours ambitions of becoming the President of the Republic of Kenya.
“I have no intention to resign from my job. I will fight to the end,” the deputy president vowed.
On Tuesday, October 8, the lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to oust the second in command from office. The decision to dismiss Gachagua was backed by 281 lawmakers, 44 legislators dissented while one abstained.
The deputy president has been increasingly marginalised since the motion to impeach him was fronted. A section of lawmakers have accused him of corruption, insubordination with regards to supporting President William Ruto and his policies and of unnecessarily attacking the country’s top security agencies.
With the impeachment having been approved by the National Assembly, the deputy president has only two options left in the tank.
With the senate currently the new battlefront, Gachagua will need at least seventeen lawmakers out of the forty-seven Senators at his side to salvage his political career.
The main issue is that in the event Senators vote to impeach Gachagua, he will not be able to run for office.
In their Wednesday morning session, the Senators agreed for the matter to be heard by the plenary. Speaker Kingi also directed the matter be heard for two days. The next thing will be to interrogate all the eleven charges levelled against Gachagua.
The plenary will have ten days to conduct the investigations and present the findings for further debate. During the deliberations, the Senate shall then summon the embattled deputy president to defend himself.
On Sunday, Gachagua unveiled a battery of top legal minds to mount his defence. The lawyers include; Senior Counsels Paul Muite, Victor Swanya, Tom Macharia, Amos Kisiul and Elisha Ongoya.
Gachagua’s lawyers who spoke to the press noted that they would defend the second in command against all the accusations levelled against him by the MPs backing the motion. “We have looked through the accusations of his excellency as the deputy president and we are prepared,” Lawyer Swanya told the press.
Once the DP argues his case, the lawmakers will then have a chance to vote against all the 11 charges. If at least two-thirds of the Senate vote to uphold the impeachment, Gachagua will be dismissed.
If impeached, Gachagua would be the first deputy president since the promulgation of the 2010 constitution to be ousted from office. However, the deputy president would have the chance to challenge his impeachment in court.
Lawyer Haron Ndubi who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke in a phone interview revealed that Gachagua will potentially proceed to file a petition at the Supreme Court due to the political magnitude of the impeachment case.
The courts would then review the matter and if it finds an error with how the Senate or the National Assembly conducted the impeachment then the Apex Court would proceed to quash the Senate’s decision.
“If Gachagua is not satisfied, he would go to the Supreme Court, without going to the High Court. The impeachment of the president or the deputy, you do not go to the high court to challenge it there,” stated the constitutional lawyer.
“If there are constitutional issues that require constitutional interpretation then they will go to the Supreme Court. This is because there are also petitions that are in the High Court,” the lawyer added.
The impeachment follows Gachagua’s spirited attempts to stop his dismissal from office. For the past three weeks, five petitions challenging the DP’s impeachments were filed at the courts, however, the efforts to stop the impeachment process have been unsuccessful.
With President William Ruto yet to comment on the matter, the move to impeach the second in command has threatened to divide the ruling Kenya Kwanza Coalition. A section of legislators have demanded President William Ruto intervenes in the matter to prevent the country from being pushed to the precipice.
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