Two hundred and eighty-one lawmakers voted in favour of the motion to remove Gachagua, while 44 opposed it, with only one member of the House abstaining. The motion required support from 233 MPs, representing two-thirds of the total 349 members, to pass through the House.
The motion to impeach Gachagua was tabled in the National Assembly last week, having garnered a total of 291 signatures.
The sponsor of the motion, Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse, sought Gachagua's removal on 11 grounds, including gross violation of the Constitution, undermining President William Ruto and the Cabinet, undermining devolution, and compromising judicial independence by publicly attacking a judge.
Other charges included making inciteful statements, committing economic crimes, spreading false, malicious, divisive, and inciteful remarks and bullying state and public officers.
Appearing in the House on Tuesday evening, Gachagua dismissed the charges as "outrageous and baseless propaganda" aimed at tarnishing his reputation and unfairly hounding him out of office.
He dedicated significant time to responding to allegations of corruption. He denied the claim that he had amassed Ksh5 billion worth of wealth within two years through corrupt means, insisting that the listed property belonged to his late brother, who had named him as one of the administrators of his vast estate.
With the National Assembly having pronounced itself on the matter, the motion now moves to the Senate for consideration. For the motion to pass in the Senate, it must garner support from two-thirds of the senators.
If the Senate upholds any of the charges against Gachagua, he will become the first Deputy President to be removed from office through an impeachment process in Kenya.
Wycliffe Nyamasege
Source : https://en.igihe.com/news/article/kenyan-mps-impeach-deputy-president-gachagua
