Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has announced that he will challenge the High Court decision that upheld his impeachment, arguing that the judges misinterpreted the law and disregarded key principles of natural justice.
Addressing the press on Tuesday, June 9, Gachagua said his legal team will move to the Court of Appeal and, if necessary, the Supreme Court, to seek redress over what he termed contradictions in the ruling.
“We stand here with tremendous respect for the Kenyan judiciary. While we respect the ruling of the High Court, we totally disagree with the interpretation of the law,” he said.
“The long-standing principle of natural justice has been trashed and ignored in broad daylight. We shall proceed to file an appeal at the Court of Appeal on the decision and hope that justice will prevail.”
Gachagua said his legal team had reviewed the judgment and identified what he described as legal errors and inconsistencies that form the basis of the intended appeal.
He took issue with the court’s decision to uphold his impeachment despite finding that aspects of the Senate proceedings were procedurally flawed, arguing that the violations of his constitutional rights should have invalidated the entire process.
“It is lost on many of us how the actions and decisions of Parliament, categorically determined by the three-judge bench as unconstitutional and a product of an unfair process, can then be deemed valid by the same bench,” he said.
“Those contradictions are an abuse to the intelligence of the Kenyan people who were following the process and the judgment for many hours,” he added.
His remarks came after a three-judge bench of the High Court ruled on Monday that while elements of the impeachment process were flawed, the outcome remained constitutionally valid.
The court found that Gachagua’s rights to a fair hearing were violated after the Senate declined his request for an adjournment on medical grounds. However, the judges held that the breach could not nullify the impeachment, warning that doing so would create constitutional uncertainty and risk competing claims to the office of Deputy President.
“The Constitution is the grundnorm, and where that grundnorm deliberately and clearly limits the power of the court, that limitation must be respected,” the bench stated.
The court awarded Gachagua Sh50 million in damages for the violation of his rights but declined to overturn the impeachment, which it ruled had met the constitutional threshold.
The judges also upheld the process leading to the nomination and approval of the current Deputy President, finding that Parliament acted within the law and applicable constitutional timelines
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