Impeachment? Night meeting doubles trouble for DP Gachagua

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua when he inspected the area damaged by the raging waters of Kijabe Dam in Maai Mahiu , Nakuru county on April 29, 2024. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

A Saturday night meeting at the Nairobi home of a Cabinet Secretary nominee opened the tap of troubles ahead for Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.

The attendants at the meeting resolved to raise a motion of impeachment against DP.

They accuse Gachagua of gross violation of the Constitution and gross misconduct, sources who attended the meeting told The Standard yesterday.

The host is from the Mt Kenya.

The night meeting brought together 21 MPs from the region. The leaders took issue with the DP for what they deemed insubordination of his boss President William Ruto and for undermining the presidency owing to his divisive tribal and shareholding narrative.

The CS nominee, according to multiple sources, told the MPs that the President was fed up with his deputy for “being irresponsible and holding him (the President) hostage”. Gachagua was accused of blackmail and that he always demands an unreasonable share of appointments in government for his community at the expense of other communities.

“Some of the examples cited in the meeting included his insistence that former Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner General Githii Mburu position had to be retained by someone from Mt Kenya region in a move that, the Cs nominee told us, made Gachagua look parochial and tribal,” an MP who attended the meeting said. The MP said the impeachment would be done after the constitution of Cabinet.

Gachagua’s shareholding and one man one vote one-shilling stand may also come back to haunt him should the MPs proceed with the impeachment plan as his earlier remarks featured prominently at the meeting.

Gachagua was described as a DP who mobilises and incites ethnic rivalries.

The host also informed the MPs that Gachagua opposed the impugned Finance Bill 2024 in Cabinet and later kept urging pro-government MPs to listen to the ground before passing it. That was contrary to his constitutional role of supporting the President and by extension government programmes, which left the government with egg on its face.

“Gachagua was also accused of holding meetings with members from his community at his Karen official residence who were aggrieved by taxation. These groups included the Nyamakima traders and the avocado farmers where he directed KRA to reverse the decision on increment of import duty from Sh2.5 million to Sh3 million on each container,” another MP said.

According to his accusers, Gachagua’s meetings, which he held with people from his region only, were more of incitements against paying taxes. Gachagua was accused of not holding meetings for such discussions with Kenyans from other regions.

The Deputy President was also, at the meeting, accused of insubordination. It was claimed that he failed to lead the demolition of buildings along the Nairobi River which is contained in one of his mandates as espoused by the Nairobi River Commission based on Executive Order No 1 of 2023 which sought to reclaim Nairobi River, a pine to the city’s blue and green infrastructure for a better urban environment and quality of life. 

President William Ruto and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua during the National Prayer Breakfast at Safari Park Hotel on May 30, 2024. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

“The meeting was meant to prepare us psychologically and we were informed that since ODM had come on board, it would be easy and possible to have the numbers,” said another MP who attended the meeting.

Gachagua’s lieutenants, who confirmed that the meeting was held but a majority of them were locked out, however, said the impeachment plot was hatched even before the meeting. They say it was only a threat to intimidate the second in command.

Embakasi North MP James Gakuya said he was aware of the plot and dared any of the MPs to introduce an impeachment motion against Gachagua. Gakuya said it will be the deal breaker between Mt Kenya region and Ruto.

“The impeachment threat has been making rounds in our (MPs’) circles for long and it is now high time it is actualised as opposed to being used to blackmail and intimidate Gachagua and Mt Kenya people,” Gakuya said.

Kirinyaga Women Representative Njeri Maina said all along they have known the plot only that it was made public after the deal between Ruto and Raila. She said the buck stopped with the President as it was his duty to protect his Deputy from “political infighting and cannibalism exhibited by some people from the Mt Kenya region.”

“So far, he has tempered their thirst, holding the leash in place. With the new political alignments, impeachment of the deputy president would be widely considered a contempt card to the people of Mt Kenya, regardless of whether or not he picks a candidate from the same region. That would shift the card play for 2027,” Maina said.

“It will backfire on the President politically, especially from our Mt Kenya region. Plotting anything bad against Gachagua is an insult to Mt Kenya region which went against Uhuru for feeling betrayed after Raila was introduced at the expense of his promise to return a hand to support Ruto, we are keenly watching,” Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga said.

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua with Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi during the burial of Susan Wanjohi, the mother of the Secretary to Cabinet Mercy Wanjau in Nanyuki, Laikipia County, on July 26, 2024. [DPCS]

“The President must remember how he was undermined by the former regime and that is how our people believed in him. He must understand that as Mt Kenya region we are watching and following the unfolding of events cautiously,” Embakasi Central MP Benjamin Gathiru weighed in.

While attending a church service in Nyandarua on Sunday, Gachagua said he would address his community through all vernacular radio stations next Sunday where he will disclose a number of issues that he is aware of. Gachagua admitted to concentrating on his region and that he had no apologies. He said he was ready to face any consequences.

 “I want to admit that I have a weakness of loving my people and coalescing around them. If there is any punishment that will be meted out to me for that I’m ready to face it because I am guilty as charged,” he said.

He also gave the congregants an analogy of a cunning hare who, after cutting a deal with a hyena that both beat their wives to death, the hyena went and beat his wife to death but the hare bought a drum and beat through the night. In the morning the hare still had his wife.

“When the hyena went to report to the hare that he had killed his wife, he was served tea by the hare’s wife. Some leaders from this region have been recruited to fight me while there exists harmony in all the other communities,” he said.

 The first time the issue was spoken of was on June 12 when a section of MPs from the government and the Opposition side accused Gachagua of undermining the presidency and called for his impeachment.

“From where we sit as Azimio members, we see a situation where the marriage is not working. And if the marriage is not working, the logical thing to do is to separate,” Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi, who is now CS nominee for Energy and Petroleum, said.

“There is nothing that stops them from dragging Gachagua here so that they can impeach him,” Ruaraka MP TJ Kajwang said posed.

Political analyst Herman Manyora said the impeachment motion against Gachagua before the Raila Ruto deal would be hard to achieve. But with Raila on board, ‘they may feel buoyed enough and confident enough of the numbers.

“It will be easy to get the 233 required numbers but very difficult for somebody coming from Mt Kenya region to actually stand up and say, I’m impeaching a son of the soil,” he said.

The removal of Deputy President is contained in Article 150 of the Constitution which provides that he may be removed from office on grounds of physical or mental incapacity to perform the functions of the office, or on impeachment on the ground of a gross violation of a provision of the Constitution or any other law.