The government has heightened security in Nyeri County as the public participation exercise on Deputy President Rigathi's impeachment enters its second day after the National Assembly extended the period allowed for the constitutional right.
Images obtained by Kenyans.co.ke showed security officers patrolling public participation centres in Nyeri ahead of the commencement of the exercise. As of mid-morning most residents were yet to turn up for the exercise despite the extension.
The move comes a day after protests erupted in most centres within the county, prompting the exercise to be suspended temporarily. The residents took to the streets of Nyeri Town to demonstrate the decision by most parliamentarians to back the impeachment motion.
While protesting, Nyeri locals faulted President Ruto for allegedly orchestrating DP Gachagua's impeachment. According to the residents, the deputy president was elected alongside his boss and if the second in command was to be ousted, the Head of State should step aside as well.
The residents also protested the decision to have the exercise conducted manually with the residents calling for it to be done digitally.
During yesterday's protests, the residents barricaded the main road leading to Nyeri Town, forcing police officers to intervene. "No Rigathi, no Ruto. Don't try to touch the mountain. We are strongly behind Gachagua," the residents were heard shouting.
Despite police intervention, the adamant locals pledged to continue protesting even as they called on President William Ruto and DP Gachagua to resolve their differences internally.
The developments come barely five days after Kibwezi West Member of Parliament Mwengi Mutuse filed a motion to impeach the deputy president on 11 grounds. The motion backed by about 291 legislators at the time, paved the way for a public participation that commenced on October 4.
In its latest directive, the National Assembly clerk stated that the public engagement exercise would be conducted across all the 290 constituencies across the country.
Earlier in the week, Kirinyaga Woman Representative Njeri Maina moved to court seeking to have the public participation done at constituency level.
The court deemed the public participation undertaken at the county level insufficient and thus ordered an expanded public participation exercise to allow all Kenyans to express their opinion on the special motion.
“To be clear, the consequence of the orders of the Honourable Court is that the ongoing impeachment process cannot proceed until a proper public participation exercise led by each Member of Parliament in their respective constituencies is undertaken,” the woman representative commented after the court order.
