Makueni Senator Dan Maanzo, allied to the Wiper Party, on Monday weighed in on the ongoing supremacy battle in Mount Kenya pitting Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua against Interior CS Kithure Kindiki.
Speaking on Citizen TV on Tuesday, Maanzo revealed that it would only be right to impeach the president as well whenever the motion against the Deputy President is fronted.
“If there is an impeachment motion of the deputy president, then we will also have an impeachment motion against the president because they are one ticket and one people. There is nothing wrong the Honourable Gachagua has done.” Maanzo said.
Asked about his rationale for bundling the two together, he stated, “If there is going to be an impeachment motion, we have to tie them together. While we process one, we process another and run them concurrently in both the Senate and the National Assembly.”
He further noted that if that happens, then whatever tool is being used to frustrate DP Gachagua will be inexistent because he believes the deputy president has not done anything compounding to an impeachment motion.
Extrapolating on his stance on why DP Gachagua is not in the wrong, the senator claimed that as a matter of fact, the president had breached the Constitution several times.
Maanzo further defended claims that DP Gachagua was favouring the mountain region instead of addressing issues that affect the entire country, saying that it would be ludicrous to ignore the needs of the people he once represented in the National Assembly.
“Charity begins at home. He was a Member of Parliament in Nyeri. You cannot say you are the deputy president and so you are not going to address issues of your people, you are going to Rift Valley or Ukambani and address other people's issues there.” Maanzo posed.
To further defend the deputy, he added that the issues he was addressing concerning tea, coffee, and macadamia farmers were not an issue only affecting the Mount Kenya region but also other regions like Kericho and yet the MPS of those regions have refused to sort them out.
Maanzo then added that the plot to impeach the deputy president was not something new and it started the moment the DP scored the ticket to run alongside Ruto. He then dared the MPs to plan the impeachment and told them that the Senate would table an impeachment motion against the president as well if that happened.
This sentiment was echoed by Gathoni Wamuchomba, who was also a part of the panel interview.
Wamuchomba confirmed that during the voting on which Mount Kenya MP would run alongside Ruto, there was discord amongst the MPs and they had to vote three times to conclude having Rigathi Gachagua run despite losing to Kithure Kindiki twice.
Insisting that she was for Rigathi Gachagua during the entire process, Wamuchomba said that she made a moving speech to the president urging him to go with Gachagua instead because of his administrative background and also to avoid issues like being swayed by the majority who wanted Kindiki.
