If Gachagua is impeached, so must Ruto: Senator Maanzo

Makueni Senator Dan Maanzo says if the alleged impeachment motion against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is tabled, there will also be a similar bid to oust President William Ruto.

The reported ouster plot is blamed on Ruto’s allies amid what is playing out in public as a widening rift between the President and his deputy’s camps, and what Gachagua calls plans to frustrate his involvement in government function.

Senator Maanzo on Monday said Ruto and Gachagua were elected together and if the DP’s impeachment motion materializes, they will table another to send Ruto home.

“If there is an impeachment motion against the Deputy President, then we will also have an impeachment motion against the President. They’re [elected on] one ticket,” he told Citizen TV’s Daybreak program.

“If there is anyone who has breached the constitution more it is the President, not his deputy… we will tie them together and run the impeachment motions concurrently at the National Assembly and the Senate. I dare them to bring the motion!”

He defended the DP, saying “There is nothing wrong Gachagua has done,” further calling the purported impeachment “a tool to frustrate him” over his efforts to champion the rights of tea, coffee and macadamia farmers in the Central Kenya region.

The secretary-general of Ruto and Gachagua’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party, Cleophas Malala on Sunday urged the President to block the alleged impeachment plan, warning that it would also have repercussions on him.

"I am not qualified to advise but these people you want to use to oust your deputy who stood with you, you might be thinking that you are impeaching Rigathi Gachagua but you have started the journey of removing yourself," Malala said.

"The same people who are moving that motion… will start by removing your deputy but I assure you those same people will remove you as president."