By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Deputy President of Kenya has approached the high court of Nairobi, praying it to stop an impeachment move initiated against him by the Parliament earlier in the week.
Rigathi Gachagua who filed the court papers on Thursday alleged that he has been sidelined in the governance structure of the East African country.
Heritage Times HT had reported that Gachagua has been accused of “undermining” the government by allegedly supporting the recent month-long anti-government protest, an allegation he denied.
Also Read: Kenya: Impeachment Plot Hovers Around Deputy President
The Deputy President described the allegation against him as “a futile attempt to soil my name and hopefully create grounds for the mooted impeachment proceedings against me.”
According to the petition filed in court on Thursday, Gachagua said the impeachment motion was based on falsehoods that constituted a “choreographed political lynching designed to defeat the sovereign will of the Kenyan people expressed at the presidential election held August 2022”.
He has accused President William Ruto of being behind his impeachment move.
Ruto’s allies had moved a motion before the Parliament on Tuesday seeking Gachagua’s exit from office, accusing him further of stirring ethnic hatred and amassing a large and unexplained property portfolio.
The embattled Deputy President hails from Mount Kenya region, where he helped in mobilising a large voting bloc that helped Ruto win power, but the two have reportedly since fallen out.
Analysts have also said efforts to unseat him could stir agitation, which could add to the frustrations of Ruto’s government that is only recovering from a deadly protest in June and July after the introduction of a finance bill which seeks to raise. It was later dropped following a stiff resistance, in which at least 50 persons were killed.
Gachagua will be allowed to respond to the impeachment allegations in the lower chamber of Parliament on October 8.
