Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua faces mounting accusations of orchestrating political violence, as lawmakers prepare for a high-stakes impeachment vote.
In a televised interview on Monday morning, September 30, 2024, Belgut Member of Parliament (MP) Nelson Koech delved into the grounds for Gachagua’s ouster, including accusations of acquiring properties worth billions of shillings and orchestrating violence during the Gen Z protests.
Speaking on the Gen Z protests, the Belgut MP said Gachagua used proxies, MPs allied to him, to orchestrate chaos against the government that he serves.
Koech admitted that the first Gen Z protest was organic, but the subsequent one was hijacked by Gachagua and his proxies.
“The demonstrations that happened, the Gen Z demonstrations. The first one that happened was very organic. The second one was infiltrated by, and you have seen some of my colleagues are supposed to be charged in a court of law. It is pointing into involvement by the deputy president,” Koech said.
“There are grounds good enough to point that the deputy president was involved in using proxies in orchestrating violence against the population of this country,” he added.
Koech was further pressed to explain how Gachagua was involved in the Gen Z protests, yet he has not been charged, unlike his three allies.
In response, Koech noted that he didn’t want to get into the nitty-gritty details, as the mover of the impeachment motion would explain the charges in full at the National Assembly.
“I do not want to divulge much information about this motion that is coming. I am simply trying to highlight some of the grounds of his impeachment,” he stated.
Gachagua’s allies
Gachagua’s allies, including Embakasi West MP George Theuri, former Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu, and Pius Munene, last week successfully petitioned the court to block the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) from prosecuting or arresting them over suspected involvement in the anti-government protests that rocked the country in June 2024.
In a ruling on Friday, September 27, 2024, Justice Lawrence Mugambi certified the matter as urgent, urging the applicants to serve some four respondents in the petition with the conservatory orders before close of business on Friday.
“Pending the hearing and determination of this application, this court hereby issues a conservatory order restraining the Respondents whether by themselves, their officers, servants, agents or acting on their behalf from arresting, detaining, confining, prosecuting or in any other way interfering with the liberty of the Petitioner/Applicants arising out from the allegations raised in this Petition,” Mugambi ruled.
The respondents mentioned in the case include the DCI, ODPP, the Inspector General of Police, and the Attorney General.
Tuesday impeachment
Several MPs have strongly hinted that Tuesday, October 1, 2024, would be the impeachment day for Gachagua, with the much-anticipated impeachment motion expected to be tabled at 2:30 pm.
The motion will require 233 MPs to support it in order to pass, and reports indicate that as of Sunday night, 302 members of parliament had already appended their signatures.
Koech’s revelations mark a critical moment in the impeachment efforts, which have already shaken the country’s political landscape.
Gachagua has portrayed the impeachment attempt as an assault on the Mount Kenya region, which he claims to represent.
Speaking over the weekend, Gachagua rallied his supporters and accused his opponents of seeking to undermine the Mount Kenya voting bloc.
However, Koech’s comments, along with the legal battles involving Gachagua’s allies, suggest that the Deputy President may have played a more significant role in the unrest than initially believed.
The coming days will determine whether Gachagua’s political career can survive the growing pressure from both inside and outside his party.
As the clock ticks toward Tuesday’s parliamentary session, all eyes are on the fate of Deputy President, Rigathi Gachagua, and the broader implications this could have on President William Ruto’s government and the country’s political stability.
