It has now emerged that Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is sick and in hospital and will therefore not be able to appear in the Senate as a witness during his impeachment case.
Senate Speaker Amason Kingi on Thursday, October 17, 2024, called on the Deputy President’s legal team to present their witness, Gachagua, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Gachagua was set to testify before the plenary on Thursday afternoon.
Gachagua taken ill
Senior Counsel Paul Muite pleaded with the Senate to allow him some time to locate his client.
“Honourable Speaker, we are waiting for the Deputy President, and my colleagues can stand in for me; let me make inquiries where he is,” SC Muite pleaded.
Moments later, he revealed that his client was hospitalised and that he would not make it to the senate for cross-examination.
Muite started by apologizing, stating that the DP had been going to the Senate punctually before he broke the news of him being hospitalized.
“May start first and foremost by expressing apologies and regrets that the Deputy President is not here and, by not being here, the inconvenience and delay caused to Mheshimiwa Speaker and to honourable senators.
“The position, Mheshimiwa Speaker, is that during that period that I went to try and find out why he wasn’t here, because Mheshimiwa Speaker knows the Deputy President has been coming here absolutely punctually every day. The sad reality is that the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya has been taken very sick, and as I address Mr Speaker and this House, he is in hospital,” SC Muite stated.
Gachagua’s situation
Muite further requested Speaker Kingi to give him more time to go and assess DP Gachagua’s situation and return to the Senate with feedback by 5 PM.
“Mheshimiwa Speaker, I have just received this information. My proposal is that you give me at least the rest of the day to go and have an assessment of his situation and maybe even come back here by 5 PM,” Muite pleaded.
Speaker Kingi was forced to suspend the Senate afternoon sitting until 5 PM as requested by DP Gachagua’s lawyers.
However, Kingi stated that DP Gachagua should take the witness stand at 5 PM when the house would resume its sitting.