Embakasi North MP and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua's ally James Gakuya on Friday claimed that Members of Parliament who voted ‘Yes’ to Gachagua’s impeachment motion were bribed with Ksh500,000.
Speaking during an interview with K24 this morning, Gakuya said that he had credible reports that the 282 MPs were asked to remain behind after the house business was done.
However, despite making allegations that MPs received text messages asking them to remain behind, Gakuya refused to show the message he was purporting and also to name the individual who sent it.
When asked if he knew how much each MP was given Gakuya said, “It was like Ksh500,000. The majority got Ksh500,000 I don’t know if there was discrimination of different figures but the one who told me what he was getting was Ksh500,000. I don’t expect that there could be two tiers.”
The impeachment of Gachagua by the National Assembly on October 8 took the country by storm with Parliament reporting one of its highest attendance.
A staggering 282 MPs affiliated with different parties voted in support of the motion with only 44 voting dissenting. The impeachment advanced to the Senate which will determine Gachagua's fate next week.
Gachagua has since mounted a spirited defence dismissing all the allegations levelled against him.
One of his biggest accusations laid against him was that he had accumulated a wealth of Ksh5.2 billion through questionable means.
The Deputy President has claimed that most of his wealth was in the form of inheritance from his late brother Nderitu Gachagua who passed away in 2017.
In the heated debate leading up to the voting, most MPs faulted the deputy president for making divisive utterances and failing to recognise his position requires him to always champion national unity.
On Wednesday and Thursday next week, the Senate will hear the impeachment motion against the deputy president by way of plenary.
The decision to have the whole house hear the impeachment case came after a motion to form an 11-member committee by Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot was dismissed after failing to get a seconder.
Senate Speaker Amason Kingi has already communicated that Gachagua will have 5 hours to defend himself. He will also be allowed to present witnesses.
“The Senate, being the trial chamber, will be sitting as a quasi-judicial body to hear and determine the Deputy President's matter."
The Senate will then discuss the motion, after which legislators will decide whether the grounds presented for Gachagua's impeachment meet the constitutional threshold for kicking him out.
