Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki, National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwa and Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro will be the biggest winners if an impeachment motion against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua sails through.

Sources within government revealed that Gachagua’s ouster is a matter of when and not if, with anti-DP Members of Parliament from his Mount Kenya region pushing President William Ruto to sanction the impeachment motion, which they want concluded by February next year.

Gachagua has publicly talked about the impending motion saying his enemies were pushing for the ouster motion so as to benefit from the confusion.

“The President is weighing options should he sanction the anti DP motion. Troops have been assigned to sell Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki as the best suited replacement,” said the source.

Already, Kindiki has been picked as the possible number two and State operatives have deployed all means to sell him as a better assistant to the president than the current holder.

Ichung’wah is being touted to replace Kindiki in the Interior docket, while Ndindi will be elevated to take over from the Kikuyu MP in the National Assembly leadership.

Committee chair

Also set to lose their positions are three MPs who chair committees in parliament, namely Senator Karungo Thang’wa who is the chairman of the Transport Committee at the Senator, James Gakuya who chair the Trade and Cooperatives and Gathoni Wamuchomba (Constitutional Implementation and Oversight Committee).

Ichung’wa has however dismissed the impeachment claims saying they were being perpetuated by the DP himself.

“It is a sympathy seeking gimmick. No one has planned a motion to remove him. The DP’s remarks were an attempt to incite people from the Mt. Kenya region against their MPs,” Ichung’wah said over the weekend in Siaya County.

But even as the majority leader attempted to deny plans to bring the impeachment motion, a section of Kenya Kwanza MPs were talking openly about it.

Kimilili MP Didmus Baraza told a rally at his backyard that he had taken a one month leave from parliament to concentrate on his constituency matters but will resume anytime he is called to vote for Gachagua’s ouster.

“I have taken a month leave from Parliament but will avail myself to vote for the DP’s ouster,” Baraza said yesterday.

But according to Ichugw’ah the said motion was an imagination of the DP although he himself talked of a “devil” in Ruto’s government last Sunday at a church service in the presence of President Ruto.

“As a Leader of Majority, I can tell you there has never been an impeachment plan against him. That has been a creation of those that he walks around with. It’s a sympathy seeking gimmick to try and incite people from the Mt. Kenya region against MPs,” Ichung’wah said.

“If you listened to him, he passed a veiled threat to Kenyans, saying that an impeachment motion would cause political instability, or rather he framed it’s about the stability of the nation. What he meant is that he is trying to threaten that should there be one, there will be political instability.”

Impeachment motion

However, the lawmaker noted that any MP is at liberty to bring an impeachment motion against the DP, President, Cabinet Secretary or any official, pointing out that there are no exemptions.

“No MP has ever proposed, even to collect signatures. It’s only the DP who’s been speaking about his impeachment. Probably, he’s calling for it or he might imagine that he can incite one region of the country against the MPs. I’ve put my chest forward to defend the MPs,” he noted.

And talking during a TV interview, Gachagua claimed that some of the MPs fighting him have been coerced to do so. The DP alleged during a meet the people tour in Limuru over the weekend that some people were paying other leaders to plot his ouster.

Speaking separately during a TV interview, Gachagua said that due to his nature of being truthful, he is being attacked.

“They say that I’m high-headed, that I’m too people-centred, and that I listen to people too much. That I’m asking people to listen to what Kenyans are saying, I don’t think it is a crime,” he said during the interview.

During the interview, Gachagua called on President Ruto to protect him from the constant insults instigated by his allies, reminding him of the promise made during the 2022 campaign season.

Meanwhile the DP appears to be making inroads in the Mt Kenya region and is targeting Members of the County Assemblies for support after being damped by the MPs. He has won support of MCAs from his Nyeri backyard, Kiambu, Nyandarua and Murang’a. Those from Kirinyaga have divided loyalty between the DP and Governor Ann Waiguru who also harbours interest in the DP’s position in 2027.

On Saturday, Gachagua hosted 86 MCAs from Kiambu and was planning to do the same with the other counties.

The move has however not augured well the anti DP plotters at State House who called Kiambu Governor Kimani Matangi questioning why he has failed to control his MCAs.

“The governor received a call early yesterday from a certain powerful individual around the presidency asking him to explain why he has allowed his MCAs to visit the DP,” said an MCA who was among those who visited the DPs home.

Last week a meeting organized to bring together MCAs to seek their support for Kindiki as the region kingpin backfired after they disagreed with a majority siding with DP. The meeting ended prematurely after the leaders declined to endorse the Interior CS.

Two weeks ago, 48 MPs drawn from the Mt Kenya region recommended that Kindiki be the region’s link to the president. The lawmakers who met in Nyahururu, expressed frustration over the lack of a clear focal point to channel their developmental concerns and priorities to the national government. The MPs argued that the absence of a centralized representative had hindered efforts to advance the region’s agenda.

They further lamented over “high octane politics around fathom unity to support individual and personal ambition rather than the articulation, pursuit, and lobbying of the interests of our constituents.”

They accused the DP of threatening them with “dire political consequences” if they did not align with him.

Another group of leaders from Mt Kenya East, drawn from Meru, Embu, and Tharaka Nithi also endorsed Kindiki as their leader.

“As the legislators of Mt. Kenya East, and on behalf of our people, we have unanimously agreed that the link between us and the executive is Prof Kindiki,” they said.