POLITICS

Gachagua wants Ruto to forgive him and his spouse Dorcas Rigathi. The Deputy President was speaking at the National Prayer Altar at his Karen home in the company of his wife, two sons and members of Parliament. Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has recently asked for forgiveness from his boss President William Ruto as his pending impeachment motion is nearing a discussion in Parliament. “I want to ask my brother Ruto that If I have wronged him in any way, please find it in your heart to forgive me.’’ Gachagua also asked Ruto to forgive his spouse Dorcas Rigathi, while referring to her recent engagement programs that include the championing for boys rights in the country. He went further and extended the forgiveness quest to Members of Parliament who are set to discuss his impeachment motion. “If my spouse and her program has wronged you, forgive her. To the MPs, if through our utterances and actions, we have upset or wronged you, find it in your heart to forgive me.” The second in command has maintained that he is trusting in God to see him through this political tribulation. ”These things that are happening are things that we have seen before, during those difficult moments that we had with President William Ruto when everything was against him, the state machinery, the deep state and public resources. He had God on his side and am very persuaded that God Almighty that saw him has not gone anywhere.”  The DP went ahead to urge Kenyans especially those in the rift valley region to stay away from any form of political fury no matter the outcome of his impeachment. ”These things that are happening are things that we have seen before, during those difficult moments that we had with President William Ruto when everything was against him, the state machinery, the deep state and public resources. He had God on his side and am very persuaded that God Almighty that saw him(Ruto) has not gone anywhere.”   

The public participation process in Gachagua’s impeachment extended. This comes after numerous centers experienced chaos during the process. The National Assembly has extended the period allowed for public participation in Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s impeachment by one day following the disruption witnessed in several centers across the country. Through a notice, the Clerk of the National Assembly stated that all delegates to continue with the public participation tomorrow. “The 290 Constituency Offices and 47 County Women Representative Offices of all Members of the National Assembly, which are offices under the Parliamentary Service Commission, shall remain open on Saturday, October 5, from 8 am to 5 pm to facilitate further public participation in the Special Motion. Members of the public may submit their views relating to the special motion to the aforesaid respective constituency or County Women Representative Offices for onward transmission to the Office of the Clerk of the National Assembly.’’  The extension comes after numerous disruptions have been witnessed in some centers across the country.  Mostly in  Nyeri, the residents protested against the decision made  by the National Assembly to use papers instead of a biometric system, claiming the use of papers exposed the exercise to rigging. Similar events were witnessed in Murang’a, Nyeri, Kiambu and Nakuru where the exercises were brought to a halt just moments after they commenced.  

Rigathi Gachagua has filed a petition to try and stop the tabling of the impeachment motion against him. The DP’s petition comes hours before a public participation exercise against his impeachment begins.  Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has  filed a petition at the High Court seeking the suspension of the impeachment motion lodged against him at the National Assembly. According to the DP’s lawyers, the motion to impeach him was founded on deceit and misrepresentation of material facts. Gachagua’s petition also accused National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula and his deputy Gladys Shollei of bias for publicly declaring their stand on how they would prefer Gachagua’s impeachment to go. The petition continues to claim that the move to dismiss Gachagua was unconstitutional and peddled to the public in a bid to achieve unjustified purposes.  Further accusing  the National Assembly of allocating limited time for public participation which he termed as grossly insufficient to facilitate any meaningful and reasonable public engagement. This petition follows three other petitions that were previously filed at the same High Court challenging his impeachment motion.  However, all the previous ones were dismissed thus paving the way for the tabling of an impeachment motion. The petition moreover comes ahead of a public participation exercise that is set to officially begin on 4th October.