The impeachment proceedings against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua are moving swiftly with the Senate in receipt of legal documents from the National Assembly, whose members unanimously voted to have him tried by Senators.
Hours after the National Assembly passed the motion to impeach him on Tuesday night, National Assembly clerk Samuel Njoroge on Wednesday morning furnished his Senate counterpart Jeremiah Nyegenye with the resolution of the House alongside the requisite statutory documents. The Constitution provides the notification is done within two days, but the National Assembly did it in hours.
After receipt of the resolution, Senate Speaker Amason Kingi gazetted the same and the matter was included in today’s Supplementary Order paper following which the Senate resolved to begin proceedings on Wednesday next week.
Senators also resolved to hear the charges against the deputy president in plenary after a proposal to set up a select committee, which would have required 10 days to investigate the charges against the deputy president, failed to get a seconder.
By bypassing a special committee, the House has also ensured that a decision on the fate of the deputy president is not left to only 11 members of the special committee but the entire House.
Had the matter gone the special committee route and the 11 members found that the particulars of any allegation against the deputy president had not been substantiated, no further proceedings would have been taken.
It’s only after the committee had found any of the charges substantiated that the Senate, after allowing the deputy president to be heard, voted on the impeachment charges.
But now Mr Gachagua will be tried by the plenary- the entire House, a process that would be much faster.
The communication from the National Assembly dated October 9 and received at 8am, indicates the 26 particulars that culminated in the House resolution on the special motion sponsored by Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse on the proposed removal from office by way of impeachment of the Deputy President.
“Attached is a notice of special motion and affidavit of Mr Mutuse, dated September 26, 2024, and received the following day, running from page 40 to 42,” reads the communication in reference to the accompanying documents.
He continued, “Electronic evidence relating to the special motion contained in a flash disk, Order Paper for 1st October 2024, and the communication from the chair No. 046 of 2024 issued on October 1st ."Daily Nation newspaper, Standard Newspaper, the Star and Taifa Leo.
As per the legal requirement, Mr Njoroge also furnished Mr Nyegenye with the public views template (Kiswahili and English), a memo to constituency /county office managers dated October 4. Public participation advertisements on the same day in three newspapers namely the Daily Nation, Standard, and the Star.
“Order issued by the High court sitting at Kerugoya on October 4th. The press statement by the clerk of the National Assembly on the extension of public participation issued on the same date and the public participation advertisements on October 5th in the Standard and Saturday Nation newspapers” reads the communication in part.
Additional documents attached include the electronic evidence by the DP relating to the special motion contained in a flash disk, the Order Paper of October 8, communication from chair No. 049 issued on the same day and certified by Hansard, and votes and proceedings for the same day.
“Upon receipt of a resolution of the National Assembly on the removal of the Deputy President in terms of Article 150 (1) (b) of the Constitution, Standing Order 78 (Procedure for removal of President by impeachment) shall, with necessary modifications, apply,” reads Standing Orders 79.
Read together with Standing Orders 78 on the procedure for removal of President by impeachment with modifications, it states: “Upon receipt of a resolution of the National Assembly under Article 145(2) of the Constitution, the Speaker shall within seven days convene a meeting of the Senate to hear the charges against the President, and the Senate, by resolution, may appoint a Special Committee comprising eleven of its members to investigate the matter.”
They will seek to substantiate the 11 charges levelled against the DP by the motion mover as stipulated in Article 150 of the constitution.
The Senate shall, after allowing the Deputy President to be heard, vote on the impeachment charges. The Senate shall vote on each impeachment charge of the motion contrary to the National Assembly process when the members voted on all the charges at a go.
If at least two-thirds of 67 Senators vote to uphold any impeachment charge, the DP shall cease to hold office.
