Author: By Ofwono Opondo
Kampala, Uganda – It is often said that in politics, it is not over until it is over. Kenyan MPs, Senators and other architects of the impeachment of VP Geoffrey Rigathi Gachagua are now discovering that removing him from office will not be an easy walk in the park. Gachagua failed twenty-nine times to have courts halt his impeachment.
After resoundingly impeaching him in what many observers see as shambolic in supersonic speed, laced with flimsy, malicious, and unproven accusations driven by viciousness, Gachagua is proving he is probably a political skunk with a tough spirit which when provoked, emits strong offensive odour to scatter his pursuers.
A throbbing headache must be rocking President William Ruto’s State House and other corridors of power after an impeached VP’s ghost has refused to go down silently, and is instead kicking back violently, threatening to drag many down with him. It is an unenviable situation President Ruto finds himself considering that Kenya has not fully recovered from the GenZ demonstration and the violent crackdown that forced government to back-peddle on the controversial Finance Bill.
After the political drama in the National Assembly and Senate, even seasoned lawyers, seemed to have forgotten that the next battlefield would be at the High, and Appeal and Supreme Courts in twists and turns whose final outcome could take much longer than anticipated. While President Ruto had fourteen days within which to name Gachagua’s replacement, he instead chose three hours, and parliament sat within fifteen minutes sidestepping the sixty days granted by the constitution to approve Prof. Kithure Kindiki, shortcuts, challenged in Kenyan courts of law.
Looking at recent political trends in Kenya, including the aborted Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) between Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga which took four years in the courts, Gachagua’s ouster could run much longer unless he loses the appetite for legal battles if defeated at the High Court. It appears that the architects of the impeachment imagined that once they piled false, embarrassing, horrendous, and unverified allegations of corruption, theft and political malfeasance, no reasonable person, let alone a politician, would stand strong to be dragged through the sewers. Their calculations must have been that Gachagua would flee, which partly explains the fake apology and resignation letters that were circulated yet he showed up in the Senate as the impeachment process was underway.
The unverified accusation of amassing one hundred business companies, huge tracks of prime land from Nyeri to Nairobi, accumulation of five billion Kenyan shillings, and stealing from his dead brother, were so ignominious, possibly aimed at breaking Gachagua’s human spirit but which he has withstood.
Gachagua’s impeachment is reminiscent of the 1997-98 censure of ministers Jim Katugugu Muhwezi and Sam Kahamba Kutesa in the 6th parliament mostly by novices who, at the time did not even know them that much, led by Okwir Rwabwoni and Emmanuel Dombo respectively, but being fed on falsehoods by disgruntled Winnie Byanyima and Maj. John Kazoora. Although with hyperbole, Okwir and Dombo even without being cross-examined by lawyers, looked so shallow on the facts they presented on the floor of parliament, but were somehow believed, more like what Kenyan MP Eckomas Mwengi Mutuse found himself last week while prosecuting Gachagua.
Today, that scenario is being replayed over the coffee debate in parliament, making one conclude that politicians enjoying parliament and senate floors are probably the same, often looking stupid poodles, although never ashamed of their false accusations, usually easy for one skunk with courage and facts to scatter them.
Gachagua’s shambolic impeachment, removal of legal entitlements and privileges like transport and security looks so panicky, rushed, and smirks political witch-hunt against a poodle, that only yesterday barked for President Ruto, ought to be given a treat, and not smash its head.
