Why I was impeached - Rigathi Gachagua

And now the ex-vice president spoke about his impeachment.  A detailed account of these proceedings has been given in previous reports. Here is a brief summary.  Rigathi Gachagua, the former vice president of Kenya, was impeached on October 18, 2024. The impeachment was the result of a historic vote in the Kenyan Senate, making him the first vice president to be removed from office in this way since impeachment was included in the Kenyan constitution in 2010. The impeachment was followed by 11 charges against him, including insubordination to the president, incitement to ethnic violence, corruption, subversion of government and money laundering. The Senate found him guilty on five of the 11 charges, including ethnically divisive politics and threatening judges. Former vice president Rigathi Gachagua has spoken out on the reasons for his impeachment. Gachagua said it was because he disagreed with President William Ruto on many of his policies. He also said he initially believed in Ruto's vision but the people he spoke to said otherwise. He raised these concerns with President William Ruto then things started to go wrong between them. "I started telling the president that the people I was speaking to didn't like what we were doing. When it came to affordable housing, the president said it was good and I supported him because I thought it was good and I believed him until he introduced the housing levy when other Kenyans had loans and built their own houses.” Gachagua continued: “It was about the Finance Bill 2024 and university funding and I told the president I have spoken to parents who don’t like it and he said if we as a government have agreed to do something then we do it.” Gachagua raised these concerns in meetings with Ruto in a private conversation and nothing came of it. He went public and that is when the decision was made to remove him from office. “I used to speak to the president privately but it got to a point where I started speaking publicly and that is why they decided to remove me from office. We did not get along with the president.” He said he refused to submit to a team that only agreed with the president without telling the president the truth. "I never said that I was equal to the president. The problem was that everyone agreed with everything he said. I refused to do that." President Ruto's wish is to have a government that responds to his calls. Criticism, whether justified or not, is not welcome and is stifled. And Gachagua had taken part in the demonstrations against the funding law, which was an open rebellion against President Ruto and which was also the trigger for the impeachment proceedings.