Nominated Member of Parliament (MP) Sabina Chege says that former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua technically impeached himself with his “abrasive and outdated” kind of leadership.
According to Sabina, Gachagua’s biggest mistake and the start of his downfall was when he started imagining himself as a political demigod.
“Did Gachagua kick himself out of the government or was he kicked out? Is there a leader who is a demigod? That you are the one who is going to decide who is going to be voted or not?”
Sabina gave a past example of how former President Mwai Kibaki spoilt votes for Kenneth Matiba in a presidential race.
Matiba vs Kibaki (1992)
In the 1992 General Election, Matiba and Kibaki both ran for president. Matiba ran under the Ford-Asili Party while Kibaki ran under the Democratic Party. In that presidential race, Matiba received 26% of the votes, while Kibaki garnered 19.45%. This meant that Daniel Moi clinched the presidency. Kibaki would eventually became President of Kenya in 2002.
Even with this situation, Matiba, Sabina says, did not habour ill-intentions against Kibaki, and neither did he resort to name-calling and threats. She advises Gachagua to borrow a leaf from Matiba.
“Have we had people scenarios where people have disagreed before? Yes. If you look at the politics of Mt Kenya at a time when we had the late Kenneth Matiba. Matiba did not become the president because Mwai Kibaki decided to vie, and there was a split between the Mt Kenya votes.
“At the time, Matiba had done so much, he had sacrificed for the Mt Kenya people, and he may have felt that it was his rightful position for him to rise to the presidency, and may be the only person who made him not become president is Kibaki. But how did he react? Did he abuse him, call him foolish, call him a traitor? No, he agreed with the position.”
‘We must not vote out of euphoria’
Amidst all these political conundrum, Sabina rued that the Mt Kenya region had for decades voted out of euphoria i.e. 2013 (TNA), 2017 (Jubilee) and 2022 (UDA). Perhaps, this, she posits, might have locked more deserving and transformative leaders out on the ballot.
“We should allow our people to vote for their leaders. It is sad that most of the times we vote out of euphoria. It is sad to call elected leaders fools, who are you? What is your track record for you to be the super person? We started well, and a lot of us within government supported Gachagua. But he has this abrasive way of dealing with things that go off with people. It can’t be when people don’t agree with you you call them names. Is he lacking himself? Because the more Gachagua talks, the more he exposes himself.”
In October 2024, the Senate upheld the impeachment Gachagua by the National Assembly and voted to remove him from office.
The outcome of the vote, taken late in the night, was the first time in the history of Kenya that the holder of the Office of the Deputy President had ceased to hold office through a trial borne out of impeachment proceedings.
The 67 lawmakers of the Senate found the DP guilty on five grounds that centred around gross violation of the constitution and abuse of office.
