NAIROBI, Kenya- The High Court has ruled that the public participation exercise conducted by the National Assembly during the impeachment of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua met the constitutional threshold required under the Constitution.
Reading the judgment on Monday, Justice Freda Mugambi said the court was satisfied that the process undertaken by the National Assembly complied with constitutional requirements.
“We are satisfied and hereby find that the public participation conducted by the National Assembly in connection with the impeachment of H.E. Gachagua as Deputy President met the requisite constitutional threshold in all material respects,” Justice Mugambi said.
The court also found that the Senate did not violate the Constitution by failing to conduct a separate public participation exercise.
“We find that the Senate did not violate Article 10 or 118 by failing to conduct its own independent public participation,” the judge ruled.
The bench further held that the adequacy of public participation should not be measured by the number of people who took part in the exercise.
“The adequacy of the public participation exercise ought not to be measured by the number of members of the public who ultimately chose to engage or by whether any particular outcome was achieved,” Justice Mugambi said.
“The true measure is whether the State discharged its obligation to create conditions in which meaningful participation was genuinely possible,” she added.
The court also ruled that low turnout and the unavailability of Gachagua’s response to members of the public during the participation exercise did not render the process constitutionally deficient.
The findings form part of the High Court’s judgment in petitions challenging the impeachment process that resulted in Gachagua’s removal from office as Deputy President.
