As members of the Senate prepare for the trial of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, the second in command has launched a fresh bid to have his impeachment trial halted.
This application is to be heard today before Justice Chacha Mwita.
Gachagua claims Members of Parliament were intimidated and were under undue influence prior to and during the hearing of his impeachment motion.
He says the National Assembly prosecuted proceedings on the basis that he had offended the President rather than the Constitution and the law.
"The object of the impeachment exercise appears to have been to please President William Ruto rather than examine fidelity to the constitution," he asserts.
Based on these and other claims such as lack of adequate public participation, the Deputy President believes that the resolution transmitted to the clerk of the Senate by the clerk of the national assembly is invalid.
Last week, 281 MPs voted to impeach Gachagua.
National Assembly speaker Moses Wetangula called the vote after only 44 of the required 117 MPs voted to save the DP Gachagua now has the Senate to save him, that is if he manages to raise 23 senators to defeat the motion sponsored by Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse.
The impeachment hearing is scheduled for 16 and 17 October. But the DP seeks to have the hearings stopped saying the motion is filled with lies and unsupported allegations
"The impeachment before the National Assembly was converted into a vicarious assault on family rather than an investigation of constitutional violations by a public servant," he argued.
According to him, parliament abused the constitution by choosing to use the 'impeachment mechanism' to settle political scores rather than allow other mechanisms in settling disputes to take precedence.
He further questions the manner in which the proceedings were hurriedly conducted going by how the public participation exercise turned out.
Gachagua becomes the first deputy president to be impeached in Kenya's history.
Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse preferred 11 charges upon which MPs voted to send President William Ruto’s principal assistant packing.
The accusations include gross violation of the constitution, undermining the President, undermining devolution, irregular acquisition of wealth, publicly attacking a judge, intimidating acting Kemsa CEO, promoting ethnicity and insubordination to the President among other charges.
Separately, a graft case against former Migori Governor Okoth Obado, his children and proxies will be mentioned today for directions.
The accused persons face charges ranging from conspiracy to commit economic crimes, conflict of interest, unlawful acquisition of public property and money laundering.
The court has since heard that Obado and his co-accused exaggerated the prices of goods and services to confer financial benefits to themselves unfairly.
