DP Gachagua rushes to court seeking to stop his planned impeachment

Embattled Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has filed a petition at the High Court seeking to stop his impending impeachment.

Gachagua says the intended impeachment process against him essentially seeks to overturn the sovereign will of the majority of the people of Kenya who voted for him to be the deputy president.

He has urged the High Court to prohibit the National Assembly from processing, passing and transmitting to the Senate any resolution founded on the notice of motion dated September 26, 2024, concerning his proposed removal from office by impeachment.

Gachagua also wants the High Court to declare that both the National Assembly and the Senate are currently improperly constituted to undertake the impeachment process against him for violating the two-thirds gender rule.

The impeachment motion was tabled in the National Assembly by the Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse on October 1, and public participation to complement the motion will be held tomorrow (October 4) in every county.

Gachagua says the planned public participation is a violation of various constitutional provisions, including his constitutional rights, as the exercise denies him fair administrative action.

He says he was not given an avenue to respond to the allegations levelled against him in the notice of motion, and that is a violation of his rights to a fair hearing.

The DP says his intended removal from office constitutes a very serious undertaking which requires it to be conducted per the strict dictates and provisions of the Constitution and parliamentary rules of procedure.

In his petition, Gachagua invites the High Court to consider that his election as the DP took place following the national presidential election held on August 9, 2022, when all eligible citizens of Kenya across 290 constituencies voted for him.

"By virtue of provisions of Article 138 (2) of the Constitution of Kenya, an election of the President and Deputy President is held in the 290 constituencies and the diaspora constituency, and not in the 47 counties," states Gachagua in his suit papers filed at the High Court in Nairobi.

"Any exercise to alter the sovereign will of the 7,176,141 Kenyans who elected the petitioner (Gachagua) should thus be held at the 290 constituencies and the diaspora constituency at which the sovereign will of the people in a presidential election was exercised."

Gachagua has sued the National Assembly, the Senate and their respective Speakers, whom he has listed as the respondents in the suit.

He says the respondents have violated various constitutional dictates on impeachment, including failure to initiate and facilitate meaningful and qualitative public participation.

The public participation is an integral part of the process of the impeachment of the DP and the president, according to the constitution, and as affirmed by the courts.

Gachagua says the collection of public views should be carried out upon adequate public notice being given to the public.

"The physical public participation forums are scheduled to be held at one location per county, which, on account of prohibitive travel expenses and geographical distance, will shut out a vast majority of Kenyans who are entitled to participate in this critical process being undertaken for the first time in Kenya's history and affects the sovereign rights of the 14.1 million Kenyans who participated in the 2022 presidential election in which the petitioner (Gachagua) was elected DP by 7,176,141 Kenyans," states Gachagua.

He alleges that the outcome of public participation is predetermined as the format of the "public views template" seeks to guide and circumscribe the content of the views and opinions the participants can provide.

Gachagua says the form has no way of verifying the true identity or even real existence of the participants since it has no requirements for participants to fill any form of identification verification documents.