NAIROBI, Kenya- Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has shifted his legal strategy in the ongoing court battle over his 2024 impeachment, formally abandoning a bid for reinstatement and instead asking the court to nullify the entire process as unconstitutional.
Appearing at the Milimani Law Courts, Gachagua, flanked by his spouse Dorcas and close political allies, argued through his lawyer Paul Muite that the impeachment violated both the spirit and letter of the Constitution.
Muite told the court that Kenya adopted a “pure presidential system” under the 2010 Constitution, meaning Parliament cannot simply use its numbers to remove a deputy president under the guise of constitutional violations.
He framed the impeachment as akin to a vote of no confidence, arguing that lawmakers overstepped their mandate.
“The people of Kenya decided in August 2010 that they wanted a pure presidential system,” Muite submitted.
“It is not the case that members of the National Assembly can vote and christen their resolutions as constitutional breaches when in truth they are merely exercising numerical strength.”
A central pillar of Gachagua’s case is the claim that public participation, required in such proceedings, was flawed.
His legal team argued that sessions held at Bomas of Kenya were restrictive and controlled by select politicians, locking out broader public input.
Muite further told the court that the exercise conducted by the National Assembly in October 2024 was neither adequate nor meaningful, as it allegedly presented only the accusations against Gachagua without giving the public access to his defense.
“The public was only presented with allegations… not the deputy president’s side of the story,” he argued, terming the process a “mockery” of constitutional standards.
The legal battle is part of a broader, protracted dispute that has seen multiple petitions consolidated before the High Court.
Hearings into the impeachment challenges were scheduled for April and May 2026 before a three-judge bench.
Earlier, the Supreme Court of Kenya declined to halt the proceedings, ruling it lacked jurisdiction to interfere with cases before the High Court, clearing the way for the matter to proceed.
Gachagua was impeached in October 2024 after the Senate upheld several charges against him, marking the first such removal of a deputy president in Kenya’s history and triggering a wave of legal challenges that continue to test the limits of constitutional interpretation.
With his latest move, the case now pivots from a personal reinstatement bid to a broader constitutional question, whether the impeachment process itself was fundamentally flawed.
“The speaker of the National Assembly had in advance issued a notice convening a seating of the National Assembly on a Friday. Any thinking person would wonder how the speaker was able to anticipate the likely decision of the Senate in advance,” Muite wondered.
“The impeachment process for Gachagua was rushed. Gachagua was removed from office at lightning speed and was not given sufficient time to defend himself.”
