Kericho Governor Erick Mutai has broken his silence following Friday’s County Assembly vote in which 33 of 47 MCAs supported a motion to remove him from office.
Mutai has strongly rejected the outcome, claiming the process was manipulated and lacked transparency.
Speaking to the press in Kericho, the governor dismissed the impeachment as illegitimate and insisted that no fair vote had taken place.
“There was no impeachment in Kericho. We raised our issues on the floor of the House in person. We already knew that nine staff of the County Assembly had been given the link to pre-vote,” he alleged.
The governor described the voting process as irregular and predetermined.
“At the beginning of the voting, it began with six votes, then it went to around 20-something, and in a short time, it jumped to 32, then 33. It confirms what these MCAs have been saying: the results were already decided before the process began,” he claimed.
Mutai also questioned the use of an SMS-based system, arguing that a physical count of the 47 members would have been more transparent.
“The simple question I ask is: why resort to voting through SMS when all members are physically present? We only ask for fairness. If the assembly feels I should be impeached, I am ready to go home with my head high, where fairness and justice are done or seen to be done. I am not afraid,” he said.
He further raised doubts about the legality of the system, noting that it had not been verified by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the Communications Authority, or any other government agency.
The governor said he and his legal team are preparing to challenge the vote in court and before the Senate. He insisted the impeachment motion was politically motivated and fell short of acceptable standards.
The motion was tabled by Sigowet Ward MCA Kiprotich Rogony, who accused Governor Mutai of gross violation of the Constitution, abuse of office, and mismanagement of county resources.
Among the allegations was a purported fictitious payment of Sh85 million to 46 companies for work said not to have been done and for goods and services allegedly not delivered.
This marks the second attempt to impeach the Kericho governor. The first, in October 2024, was dismissed by the Senate after 34 senators voted to terminate the proceedings on procedural grounds.
At the time, Mutai argued that the County Assembly had not met the two-thirds threshold required for impeachment, with 31 MCAs voting in support of the motion.
Moments after Friday’s vote, chaos broke out in the assembly as MCAs from opposing camps confronted each other. Some engaged in fistfights on the floor of the House.
The Senate will now determine whether this latest impeachment bid will succeed where the previous one failed.
