In yet another move to stop his impeachment, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Thursday filed a petition at the High Court seeking the suspension of the impeachment motion lodged against him at the National Assembly.
The Deputy President, through his lawyers, argued that the motion to impeach him was founded on deceit and misrepresentation of material facts.
Gachagua in his petition also accused National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula and Deputy, Gladys Shollei of bias for publicly declaring their stand on how they would prefer Gachagua’s impeachment to go.
According to the deputy president, the motion to impeach him was politically orchestrated and designed to defeat the sovereign will of the Kenyan people.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua addressing a rally in Nyeri
DPPS
Gachagua further claimed the move to dismiss him was unconstitutional and peddled to the public in a bid to achieve unjustified purposes.
The second in command also accused the National Assembly of allocating minimal time for public participation which he termed as grossly insufficient to facilitate any meaningful and reasonable public engagement.
In his plea to the court, the deputy president sought an order prohibiting the National Assembly from processing, passing, and transmitting to the Senate any resolution made from the motion filed on September 26.
Gachagua’s latest petition follows three other petitions initially filed at the High Court that challenged his looming ouster. However, all of them were dismissed paving the way for the tabling of an impeachment motion.
On September 30, a petition to stop Gachagua’s impeachment failed after a 3-judge bench of the Constitutional Division of the High Court declined to issue interim orders.
The petition was filed by a Kenyan against the Senate and National Assembly and sought to stop the impeachment process. However, the court declined to issue conservatory orders and directed the parties involved to appear before it for mention on October 10.
The dismissal of the third petition followed days after the first and second attempts by former United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Secretary General Cleophas Malalah and civil society group Sheria Mtaani hit the wall.
Meanwhile, the fourth petition comes ahead of the commencement of public participation in the motion against the deputy president, the public hearing is set to officially begin on October 4.
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula during Parliamentary proceedings
