Impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has filed a petition at the Court of Appeal seeking to stop the ongoing proceedings at the High Court while detesting the three-judge bench.
Gachagua wants the Appellate Court to issue an injunction stopping the impeachment hearing at the High Court.
According to Gachagua through his lawyer John Njomo,the rulings were inaccurate, erroneous and were a misinterpretation of Article 165 (4) of the Constitution.
“The applicant contends that the stated ruling is based on not only a misinterpretation of Article 165 (4) of the Constitution but also a violation of Articles 25, 27, 47, 48, 50 (1) and 260 as the Constitution accords the power to empanel and assign judges to only the Chief Justice of Kenya…therefore the DCJ has no power to assign and empanel Judges. That the actions and omissions of the impugned Bench are not only, wrong and unlawful but incorrect, and unprocedural.’’
The petition further argues that if the Court of Appeal fails to rule in his favour, then he would be denied the right to a fair hearing.
Moreover, adding that his prayers should be answered so that his appeal does not become null and void.
”That unless the said orders are issued, any delay shall result in irreparable prejudice of the Applicant’s rights to a Fair Trial & Hearing and ultimate loss of the substratum of his Petition E565 of 2024 which shall ultimately render both the intended Appeal herein and the Petition E565 of 2024 a nugatory, superfluous and moot.’’
