Busia County Senator Okiya Omtatah has raised concerns about the impeachment process that saw Rigathi Gachagua kicked out as Deputy President.
Speaking to the media shortly after the Senate upheld the impeachment motion, Omtatah said that Gachagua was not given a fair judgment, adding that the process was rushed considering that they had up to Saturday, October 19, 2024, to conclude the motion.
Additionally, he stated that when Gachagua was taken ill, the Senators should have listened to his doctors.
“First of all, we just needed one ground to impeach, and second, I don’t think it was fair to rush things when we know that we had up to Saturday to conclude it, so in all fairness, when he was taken ill, we should have listened to his doctors, and it is very important to listen to a person,” Omtatah said.
Voicing his dissatisfaction, the Busia Senator disclosed that he had a burning question to ask Gachagua about his utterance on ‘watu wa murima‘.
He went on to say that it would have been better for the House to give Gachagua a chance to clarify the issue instead of reducing it to ethnicity without hearing his side.
“I had a burning question I had to ask the deputy president, and the question was, when you talk of watu wa murima is it an ethnic or social category? Because where I come from in two rural wards we have Peshmark Maina, who is the MCA, and Kalenjin MCA, so is this Peshmark Maina part of watu wa Murima or from Busia?”
“So when the DP talks of watu wa Murima, does he include Luo MCAs who are in Kiambu? Are they part of watu aa Murima? I know there are people from different ethnicities settled in Nyeri; I wanted that to be clarified because to reduce it to ethnicity is not good,” he added.
Gachagua’s impeachment
On Thursday, October 17, 2024, the Senate impeached Gachagua after he was found guilty of five out of 11 counts against him.
The vote took place while Gachagua was in the hospital suffering from severe chest pains.
Gachagua, who was facing 11 charges, including gross misconduct and abuse of office, has officially been sent packing after the House voted on grounds 1, 4, 5, 6, and 9 against him.
The impeachment motion was introduced in the National Assembly last week by Kibwezi West MP, Mwengi Mutuse. In a decisive vote, 281 MPs supported the motion, with only 44 opposing it.
Senator Okiya Omtatah: I don’t think it was fair to rush things when we had up to Saturday. I had a burning question to ask the DP: When he talks about ‘murima,’ is it an ethnic or social category? Because there are some Luo MCAs in Kiambu, are they part of murima?… pic.twitter.com/WMiQTqjlWQ
— K24 TV (@K24Tv) October 17, 2024