High Court Judge, Justice Chacha Mwita will tomorrow Tuesday deliver a ruling on whether to suspend the Senate impeachment trial of Deputy President Righathi Gachagua following successful Impeachment of the DP at the National Assembly.
The senate is expected to commence the Impeachment trial on Wednesday with both the National Assembly and the Deputy President given five hours each side to present their case before voting.
The Deputy President through his Lawyer Paul Muite told Court that for the public participation to be effective the petitioner who is the subject to the impeachment should have been accorded an opportunity to answer to the allegations against him.
An opportunity which the DP submitted that it was never allowed at any constituency or county level during the public participation.
According to Senior Counsel Paul Muite, only the allegations against DP Gachagua where taken but not his response.
DP Gachagua through his advocates he has maintained that there was no adequate time when the public participation data was returned back to the national assembly hence it could not be evaluated.
Paul Muite told Court that the public was denied evaluation of the data by the National Assembly.
Further, according to Paul Muite, Independent opinion polls shows that only 7% of Kenyans supported the impeachment of the deputy president with an overwhelming majority saying both the president and the Deputy President should be impeached.
Counsel Paul Muite further told Court that 93% of Kenyans were against impeachment of the deputy president as a person.
They urged Court to issue orders suspending any debate at the senate for the removal of the Deputy President from office by way of Impeachment.
The defense side led by Counsel Peter Wanyama on their part informed court that It cannot be in the public interest that the national assembly has debated the motion for the removal of the DP to the constitutional requirement of two thirds, and then they arrive at a conclusion that there are sufficient grounds to remove the president from the office and then that decision is brought to a standstill by the Court.
They urged Court to dismiss the application by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and allow Senate to proceed with the impeachment trial.
