8″ October “2024” Kenya’s lawmakers vote to impeach deputy president, speaker says
Kenya’s parliament voted on Tuesday to impeach Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on charges including enriching himself and stirring ethnic hatred, the chamber’s speaker said, sending the motion to the Senate for trial.
The impeachment motion on Tuesday accused the 59-year-old deputy to President William Ruto of corruption, insubordination, undermining the government and practising ethnically divisive politics, among a host of other charges
According to the results … of the motion that I’ve just declared, a total of 281 members being more than two-thirds of the members of the National Assembly have voted in support of the motion,” Parliament Speaker Moses Wetang’ula said.
There were 44 votes against and one abstention, according to Wetangula.
Kimani Ichung’wah, parliament’s majority leader, said the deputy president had “violated not one, but eight provisions of our constitution
On Tuesday evening, he urged lawmakers to “search your conscience” before voting.
“If you search your conscience and listen to the issues that have been raised and you find that there are no grounds to impeach the deputy president of Kenya, please make the right decision.”
He proclaimed his innocence, offering a detailed denial of the allegations, which include amassing a large unexplained property portfolio, and promoting “ethnic Balkanisation
The impeachment motion will now proceed to the upper house Senate and if approved there, Gachagua would become the first deputy president to be removed from office in this way since impeachment was introduced in Kenya’s revised 2010 constitution.
The upper house Senate must sit within a week of receiving the impeachment and will then have 10 days to deal with the motion, including allowing Gachagua to cross-examine the evidence.
It will require the support of at least two-thirds of senators to pass.
The impeachment can however be appealed through the courts.
Gachagua has filed a court petition to halt the proceedings, which were initiated by Ruto’s coalition allies last week