Petitioners move to court seeking to oust Ruto, Gachagua

President William Ruto and his Deputy Rigathi Gachagua. [File, Standard]

Fourteen petitioners have moved to court seeking orders to pave the way for a referendum to oust President William Ruto and his Deputy Rigathi Gachagua from office over alleged violation of the Constitution, incompetence, and lack of public trust.

In the lawsuit lodged at the Milimani High Court by Kenya Bora Tuitakayo Citizens Union, activists Cyprian Nyamwamu and Khelef Khalifa, Janet Muthoni, Captain Paul Rukaria, Prof Fred Ogolla, and nine others sought 34 prayers including a finding that the duo has failed to serve Kenyans diligently.

"An order of mandatory injunction be issued to compel the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to conduct a referendum to determine whether the tenure of President and Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya should be terminated on account of gross violation of the Constitution, abuse of power, incompetent governance and irreversible loss of public trust and legitimacy," say the petitioners.

While seeking for a referendum to be conducted by the end of October 2024, the petitioners argue that the president and his deputy have violated the Constitution over 31 times since they were sworn into office in September 2022 by allowing oppressive taxation, extrajudicial killings of anti-government protesters over the high cost of living and entering into secret agreements with the government of United States of America.

The Head of State and his deputy are also accused of capturing Parliament, encouraging and inducing the defection of MPs in order to turn the Kenya Kwanza Alliance into the majority party in the National Assembly.

Ruto and Gachagua have been blamed for advocating and implementing a tax regime and economic policies prescribed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that are adverse to the well-being and benefit of Kenyan people and appointing state and public officials in an ethnically discriminatory manner.

The President is further accused of appointing Cabinet in breach of the principle of two-thirds gender rule.

Keep Reading

The petitioners also contend that by using the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to collect cess in the counties, the president has undermined devolution.

"President has run the government in a manner that has interfered with the management of health, markets, land rates, livestock, cows and chickens etc," the petitioners say.

They argue that the setting up of the E-Citizen single paybill as directed by IMF and World Bank has fundamentally violated the constitutional principle set out in Article 6 of the Constitution.

The petitioners also contend that the president has intimidated independent offices including the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to withdraw so many graft cases against people in his administration including the Sh7.3 billion case against his deputy Gachagua.

"The President has refused to carry out a forensic audit of the public debt yet over 50 per cent of our debt is illegal and odious debt. The continued payment of these odious debts is against the interest of the country, this is a major issue. Parliament has failed because the president has intimidated Parliament so much that it no longer serves national interests. The reason we are in court as agents of necessity," they argue.

The petitioners fault the Kenya Kwanza regime for not allowing corruption cases reported by Controller of Budget to be probed and those found culpable arrested and prosecuted.Further, the petitioners point fingers at the President for exposing over 1,000 Kenyan police officers by sending them to Haiti.

"The courts in Kenya have clearly ruled against this deployment but the President insists that he will send the police officers to Haiti with impunity against the will of most Kenyans and of Haitians," reads the court papers.

The petitioners claim the 50 Chief Administrative Secretaries that the court last year declared their appointment unconstitutional are drawing salaries, which is a serious violation of the Constitution and a misuse of power.

They accuse Ruto and Gachagua of not dealing with the political crisis within the confines of the Constitution even deploying Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) officers on peaceful protesters and abducting others.

"In a constitutional democracy, there can be no justification for the President to deploy the Kenya Defence Forces to prevent unarmed citizens from protesting and picketing as guaranteed by Article 37 of the Constitution."

The petitioners fault Ruto for violating Articles 12, 28, and 38 of the Constitution in criminalizing the good governance protests led by the Generation Z youthful activists, labelling them as terrorists and unleashing State violence against them.

They accuse the Kenya Kwanza administration of permitting "political thugs, saboteurs, agent provocateurs, and other goons" to infiltrate the Gen Z-led protests and cause mayhem in the country.

"Given the brutality, abductions, and cold-blooded executions that the police have hitherto unleashed on protesters, it is important that orders be given to direct the respondents to respect the human rights of protesters particularly the rights to life, personal safety, and human dignity," they state.

According to the petitioners, the underdressed economic crisis witnessed in the country in the aftermath of the Finance Bill 2024 withdrawal could easily trigger and expedite Kenya's descent into a Sri Lankan, Lebanese or Sudanese-type of State collapse.

They further question the move by the Head of State to consent to the designation of Kenya as a non-NATO ally by the USA, arguing that the move was made devoid of transparency.

"Such a decision is potentially risky to Kenya's national security and its non-aligned foreign policy."

The petitioners accuse Ruto and Rigathi of aiding and abetting the misappropriation of public funds in a corrupt scheme where Sh17 billion was used for oil import subsidy in the Ministry of Energy in violation of Articles 131 and 152 of the Constitution.

"Ruto has violated Article 206 of the Constitution in condoning, aiding, and abetting the non-payment into the Consolidated Fund of some proceeds of loan procured by the national government," they stated.

In the case, the 14 petitioners seek several orders including a declaration that the terms of office of all elected officials in Kenya may be terminated by the people of Kenya in the exercise of their sovereign power under Article 1 of the Constitution.

"A declaration be issued to declare that the terms of office of the President and Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya may be terminated by the people of Kenya in the exercise of their sovereign power under Article 1 of the Constitution through a referendum supervised by the IEBC," they state.

The petitioners want the court to quash the agreement reached between President Ruto and his US counterpart Joe Biden to make Kenya a non-NATO ally of the US.

"A declaration be issued to declare that Ruto violated Articles 1, 2, and 50 of the Constitution by entering into a secretive treaty with President Biden of the USA to make Kenya a non-NATO ally of the United States of America without the public participation and or consent of the people of Kenya and approval of Parliament," states the court papers.They also want the court to make a finding that Ruto has violated his oath of office by receiving gifts from foreigners in the form of paid-for jet hire and fuel costs during his State visit to the United States in May 2024.

"A declaration be issued that Ruto has violated the Constitution in making a secret agreement with the government of the United States of America to establish a military airfield and airport in Lamu County at no specified benefit to the Republic of Kenya and its people," said the petitioners.

The petitioners want the court to find that the President violated the law by adopting an authoritarian style of leadership lacking in human empathy and imposing his will and ill-through-out solutions to the complex problems facing the country and its people.

They want the court to declare that Ruto has abused his power as President in deploying police officers and other State officials to evict, intimidate, and harass residents of Ndabibi Area of Nakuru county in respect of private land dispute.

The petitioners further demanded a directive for the withdrawal of the military officers from the streets during the anti-government demonstrations.

The petition comes amidst the widespread protests that have left over 50 Kenyans lose their lives and 400 others nursing critical injuries.