Impeached Kericho Governor Erick Mutai’s legal team is now seeking to block the impeachment motion from proceeding, accusing the county assembly of allowing some members to vote multiple times.

The impeachment motion is currently being heard in the Senate, which opened proceedings on Wednesday, August 27, 2025.

The governor’s legal team, led by Senior Counsel Katwa Kigen, filed a preliminary objection against the motion, arguing that the two-thirds threshold required for impeachment was not met and that the total number of MCAS who voted to impeach the governor was 36 and not 33, as per the record.

According to the defence, some MCAs who pushed for Mutai’s removal were recorded as having cast their votes more than once.

“Mr Speaker, there is a thorny issue creeping from our motion. Kericho County Assembly has 47 MCAs; the document submitted by the county assembly shows 33 voted in favour of the motion. There are 18 MCAs who said that they never voted for the motion. Because of that, Mr Speaker, it was not supported by the requisite 2/3 as required by the law,” Wanyama stated.

“From the document that the county assembly has submitted to the Senate, it shows 36 MCAs voted for this motion, and some were voting twice,” he added.

Lawyer Peter Wanyama, representing the governor, told the Senate that the assembly used a system known as the IPPD platform, which requires an MCA’s payroll number and ID number to access and cast a vote.

IPPD system

 Wanyama claimed he personally attempted to log into the system the previous day using the details of an MCA and successfully cast a vote, raising concerns over the credibility of the process in such a serious constitutional exercise.

He further explained that the system generates an audit trail after voting, capturing the names of MCAs, their voting choices, and a summary of the entire process. Access to the audit trail, he said, is restricted to the Speaker, the Clerk of the County Assembly, and designated IT personnel. Presenting a printout of the audit trail as evidence, Wanyama pointed out that at least three MCAs had attempted to vote multiple times.

MCAs who voted twice

The records showed one MCA’s name appearing three times, each entry indicating a “Yes” vote. Among those flagged were the mover of the motion, Sigowet MCA Kiprotich Roboni, as well as nominated MCA Beatrice Chepkemoi and another member, Moses Rotich.

“If you look at pg 16 of volume 4A, you will see that an MCA, Moses Rotich, says in the logs that he voted yes; on page 17, look at the IPPD number of the same MCA; it says he voted yes; the second MCA who voted twice is Beatrice Chepkemoi, and the mover of the motion, Kiprotich Roboni,” Peter Wanyama stated.

Following the submissions, Senate Speaker Amason Kingi suspended the proceedings and announced that he would deliver his ruling at 2:30 p.m.