• Senate Speaker Amason Kingi has directed that the trial of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua be undertaken in a whole-house setting
• The proposal for a special committee was defeated after Nairobi senator Edwin Sifuna refused to second the motion of proposition
• The upper legislative house has ten days to review the charges against Gachagua before realising its verdict on the deputy president’s impeachment

Eli Odaga, a journalist at TUKO.co.ke, brings more than three years of experience covering politics and current affairs in Kenya.

Nairobi —Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s impeachment will be prosecuted on the Senate floor after the proposal for a committee was defeated.

The Leader of the Majority in the upper legislative house, Kericho senator Aaron Cheruiyot, had moved a motion proposing that an 11-member committee be elected to revise the charges that led to Gachagua’s impeachment.

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Cheruiyot picked his Nairobi colleague Edwin Sifuna to second the proposal, but the latter declined the motion.

Sifuna cited the magnitude of the matter, which he suggested would not be properly handled by a select committee.

“Indeed, this is a matter that is extremely unique and has elected immense public attention, and therefore, Mr Speaker, given the mood of the House and especially on the minority side, I respectfully decline to second that motion,” said Sifuna amid approval from the rest of the House.

With the foregoing, Speaker Amason Kingi, while citing the standing orders of the House, ruled that the trial of the deputy president would be in plenary sessions after the motion proposing a select committee lacked a seconder.

Source: TUKO.co.ke