There may not be enough grounds to impeach Deputy President William Ruto, Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu has said.
Talks of Ruto impeachment have recently been amplified by Siaya Senator James Orengo who announced on Saturday that he will sponsor an impeachment motion against the DP.
The Senate Majority leader cited the fake Sh39 billion military tender and the killing of police officer Kipyegon Kenei as his grounds.
“Watch this space. In two weeks, we will start the process that will see us deal with him,” Orengo said in Siaya during the burial of University of Nairobi lecturer Professor Gilbert Ogutu.
But Wambugu, a harsh critic of the DP, said the only grounds to impeach Ruto is misbehaviour. He said Ruto is the principal assistant to the President but has refused to obey President Uhuru Kenyatta's orders to stop early campaigns.
He said Ruto is also opposed to the President's fight against corruption. Ruto has said certain individuals are being hounded to court in the pretext of fighting graft to achieve political agenda.
The DP has also complained of being undermined by some state officers. Wambugu, however, thinks the problem with the DP is going against his boss.
"That is the only problem. He can say the things he is saying. He can complain because, in every place where people are employed, there is always one employee who is always complaining," Wambugu said in his Nyeri town office on Monday.
He said Ruto does not need to be impeached but should leave voluntarily if he is not happy working in government rather than waiting to get pushed out.
Wambugu asked why the DP should fight to stay in a government that he is always complaining about.
On Sunday while speaking in Buuri constituency in Meru county, Ruto said he would call out public officers who were being used to undermine his office.
But Wambugu said the DP was trying to play the victim.
"The best thing for him to do is to leave instead of becoming a complainer and trying to play the victim because he will not succeed," the MP said.
The first time lawmaker said moving an impeachment motion was a personal opinion and a right of every lawmaker who wants the DP impeached.
"The motion will be decided based on merits or demerits of whatever reasons brought forward to support the impeachment bid," he said.
Wambugu said Ruto was not a subject of investigations by the DCI over the murder Kenei nor in the fake arms deal involving former Sports CS Rashid Echesa.
“It is important for us to note that at no time has the DCI mentioned the Deputy President as a suspect in that case. He is talking about the circumstances that led to the death of the officer,” he said.
But the MP asked why the DP was politicising the case to make it look like the DCI was after him. He said the investigators have not mentioned Ruto as a suspect "yet the DP was making the whole matter look like it was about him".
Kenei’s family wants answers to why their relative was murdered and that it was wrong for Ruto to claim the officer was killed because he was his bodyguard.
At Kenei's burial on Saturday, the DP said the policeman was killed in a bid to intimidate him (Ruto) and derail his political agenda for 2022.
Wambugu said it was surprising that since Kenei was murdered, the DP has not made a single change in the security organisation in his office nor has someone been fired or redeployed.
“Unless he is telling us that only that one officer was responsible for whatever mess is being investigated by the DCI in regard to weapons that were allegedly supposed to be purchased on behalf of the government,” Wambugu said.
edited by peter obuya
