Anti-Gachagua Mt Kenya MPs develop cold feet on ouster bid

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua acknowledges greetings from Homabay Residents during the commissioning of the Rusinga Ring Road, Homa Bay County. [DPCS]

They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. This is the peculiar state a cross-section of MPs is facing as the plot to impeach Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua gathers momentum.

While some MPs are determined to send Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua home to safeguard their political career in 2027, others are fearing the consequences.

Some MPs, especially from Gachagua’s Mt Kenya home region, blame him for their deteriorating political fortunes on the ‘ground’ where he has demonized them as sellouts, home guards, betrayers and collaborators, a strategy that makes them very unpopular with the electorate.

According to the multiple sources who are pushing for Gachagua’s ouster, the main reason they want him out is to revive their political fortunes in 2027, maintaining that failure to do that is akin to digging their political grave.

“He is in an all-out political war against us.  He has successfully incited the electorate against us to the extent of us fearing to go to the grassroots. And as if that is not enough, he has planted candidates against us. That means if he is not stopped, we will be sent home by the people in 2027,” an MP said.

“Impeaching him means that he will not have the State machinery to crisscross Mt Kenya region.  He will not vie for any elective position in the country and therefore he will no longer be a threat to our political careers. This motion is a communal affair. It seeks to help those of us who are his critics but President William Ruto’s allies,” the MP, who did not wish to be named, said.

According to the legislators, Gachagua has the people but does not have leaders who may protect him from any aggression coming from Parliament.

 “Gachagua may have learnt from the President to maintain contact with the electorate but he forgot that when Ruto was Deputy President, he ensured that he had both the Senate and the National Assembly majority MPs.  Senators were on his side and this ensured that his boss, former President Uhuru Kenyatta, could not marshal sufficient numbers for an impeachment,” another MP noted.

But Kimilili MP Didimus Barasa is not afraid to bell the cat. On Thursday, Barasa announced that he was coordinating the collection of signatures and announced that he had attained 280 to send Gachagua home.

He said the motion is scheduled for debate on Tuesday should it be approved by the Speaker.

Nandi Hills MP Bernard Kitur also confirmed signing the impeachment motion against Gachagua.

“Unprecedented times ahead in our national politics. When faced with a decision between nationhood or friendship to choose the former, I have signed,” Kitur wrote on his Facebook page.

“When all you do is talk about shareholding, never talking about development, only about kahawa na mrima, my friend Gachagua just accept that the thrill is gone, it is time to fold. We must make decisions regardless of threats, it is so decided,” Narok Senator Ledama Ole Kina tweeted 

But while Mt Kenya leaders are hell-bent on sending Gachagua home, they feel they may never be forgiven by their electorate and this has led to a quagmire on who shall table the impeachment motion.

This is despite the assurance that the MPs who will spearhead the motion will have added state security to prevent a scenario where he is abducted or influenced not to attend the tabling of the motion.

This is what happened during the actual debating in 2014 when former Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi failed to show up in Parliament to introduce an impeachment motion against Kirinyaga Governor Ann Waiguru who was then Devolution Cabinet Secretary.

The Saturday Standard has also learnt that the President had okayed the impeachment motion on Wednesday but on Thursday, after interventions from businessmen and church leaders, called for a Parliamentary Group (PG) meeting next week to discuss the way forward.

The vocal Mt Kenya MPs who have been leading the onslaught against Gachagua, led by National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah who have been maintaining that the impeachment was Gachagua’s creation to look for sympathy, are now quiet. They have all gone silent except Murang’a Women Representative Betty Maina, who is also Mathira MP Eric Wamumbi’s wife.

“He who digs a pit with evil intent will fall into it. I cautioned him from fighting the President as he would not win but diminish his chances in 2027 but he did not hear me,” Ms Maina said.

“He will only be disappointed because he thought we are cowards and easily intimidated. He will reap the price of his insults next week. We will serve it hot,” she said.

Gachagua had, on August 18, given the MPs from Mt Kenya an ultimatum to join his camp by December this year or else consider themselves as outgoing MPs in 2027.

He said his assessment of the situation on the ground has revealed that the said leaders are on the verge of losing in the 2027 polls if they do not change.

“After December, you cannot change anything,” said Gachagua.

Other than Ms Maina, other Mt Kenya leaders have gone silent on the matter leaving MPs from other regions such as Rift Valley and Western to advance the debate.

Her husband Wamumbi said their differences with Gachagua were premised on claims that the Deputy President convinced him to abandon the government for 2027 presidential ambitions.