{"id":161212,"date":"2026-05-06T20:42:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/?p=161212"},"modified":"2026-05-06T20:42:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:42:31","slug":"kenya-ex-vice-president-returns-to-court-after-impeachment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenya-ex-vice-president-returns-to-court-after-impeachment","title":{"rendered":"Kenya: Ex-Vice President Returns to Court after Impeachment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\">           <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Kenya. <\/strong>         <\/span>When Rigathi Gachagua, the former Kenyan vice president, returned to the Supreme Court in Nairobi last week, he was not seeking to regain the position he lost a year and a half ago. In a notable shift in his legal strategy, his team officially dropped the request to restore him to the vice presidency, replacing it with two seemingly limited demands: financial compensation exceeding 450 million shillings (about 3.5 million dollars) and a legal declaration nullifying the dismissal.<\/p>\n<p>However, reading this shift in its political context reveals that Gachagua did not return to court to reclaim what he lost, but to secure two cards he needs in the 2027 electoral battle: a ruling nullifying the dismissal that politically rehabilitates him before his voters, and keeping the case open for a long time to avoid a legal closure on his candidacy for the presidency.<\/p>\n<p>After his dismissal, Gachagua founded the &#8220;Democracy for Citizens&#8221; party and joined the &#8220;United Opposition&#8221; coalition, which includes a wide range of opposition parties. He presented himself as a pillar of this coalition, claiming he could mobilize seven to eight million votes from the Mount Kenya region, rich in electoral votes, which decided the 2022 elections in favor of William Ruto. Searching for legitimacy in the corridors of the courts<\/p>\n<p>However, this mobilization faces a symbolic dilemma: how can someone with the stain of dismissal lead the battle for &#8220;regaining the mountain votes&#8221;? Here lies the unspoken reason for returning to the judiciary. If a ruling for compensation is issued, it logically requires an implicit or explicit declaration nullifying the dismissal, which provides Gachagua with a narrative he needs before his audience: he was not dismissed due to actual violations, but rather due to procedural flaws. According to the Kenyan Daily Nation, he conditions his partners in the coalition on prior commitments in exchange for granting them &#8220;mountain votes,&#8221; which cannot be achieved without restoring his legal standing.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Article 75 of the constitution prevents Gachagua from returning to any public office, as it prohibits anyone dismissed for violating integrity principles from holding any public position. However, the application of this article remains a subject of legal debate, as noted by a local source. Constitutional scholars are divided into two camps: one believes that the dismissed individual retains the right to run unless a final ruling is issued by the Supreme Court. In contrast, another camp argues that the precedent of the dismissal of former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko, upheld by the Supreme Court in 2022, which declared him ineligible for any public office, closes the door on Gachagua&#8217;s candidacy.<\/p>\n<p>Here, the second dimension of the strategy to return to court becomes clear: as long as the case is moving between courts and no final ruling has been issued, Gachagua can argue that &#8220;his appeals have not yet been exhausted,&#8221; thus theoretically retaining his eligibility to run. The ruling coalition fills the void<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, President Ruto enters the race having expanded his base with a memorandum of understanding signed by the Orange Movement party, led by the late Raila Odinga, on March 7, 2025, resulting in what is known as the &#8220;expanded government.&#8221; Current Vice President Kithure Kindiki, who succeeded Gachagua, is also working to rally the Mount Kenya votes, presenting himself as a &#8220;non-polarizing&#8221; alternative.<\/p>\n<p>However, this positioning faces an internal test, as the Orange Movement demands the vice presidency in any upcoming electoral coalition following Odinga&#8217;s departure, according to a local source, putting Kindiki and the Mount Kenya calculations under double pressure.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court will resume its sessions on May 7 and 8, 2026, for an old case in a new guise, no longer concerning a lost position, but rather about a political legitimacy being redefined just 13 months before the 2027 elections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">           Find more news and analyses on           <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Kenya<\/span>           on the           <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span>           website         <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Kenya. When Rigathi Gachagua, the former Kenyan vice president, returned to the Supreme Court in Nairobi last week, he was not seeking to regain the position he lost a year and a half ago. In a notable shift in his legal strategy, his team officially dropped the request to restore him to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":161211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,7,12],"tags":[544],"class_list":["post-161212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-kenya"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kenya: Ex-Vice President Returns to Court after Impeachment - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenya-ex-vice-president-returns-to-court-after-impeachment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kenya: Ex-Vice President Returns to Court after Impeachment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; Kenya. When Rigathi Gachagua, the former Kenyan vice president, returned to the Supreme Court in Nairobi last week, he was not seeking to regain the position he lost a year and a half ago. 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