Senators have broken their silence shortly after Kericho Governor Eric Mutai survived his second impeachment attempt on Friday, August 29, 2025, at the Senate buildings.

Governor Mutai survived attempts to remove him from office as Kericho boss after the Senate rejected the impeachment motion on account of doubts on the voting process.

After three days of deliberations in the House, the question that confronted senators was on the voting at the County Assembly and whether a third majority was achieved during the voting process. So contentious was the issue of the process of voting and who actually voted that the House failed to delve into substantive matters leading to the impeachment at the County Assembly.

The MCAs had filed three charges against the governor: violation of the Constitution and other laws, abuse of office and gross misconduct.

But the question as to whether voting took place and the number of MCAs who voted lingered. The governor called nearly 20 witnesses, including 18 MCAs and an IT expert, to defend him.

The County Assembly summoned six witnesses, while the Senate resorted to an independent expert from the ICT Authority. However, none of these expert witnesses cleared the doubts on who actually voted and whether the threshold was achieved.

A total of 26 senators voted against the motion brought to the floor of the House by the Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot, arguing that the voting in the County Assembly was unverifiable and thus unable to tell whether voting actually took place. A total of 16 senators said the threshold was achieved and thus supported the motion, while one senator abstained.

Senators speak on the motion

In his contribution to the motion, Nyamira Senator Okongo Omogeni described the electronic voting system, which the county installed just a day before the impeachment proceedings of the governor, as a special-purpose vehicle designed to take the governor home.

“I have sat here for three days, but I am unable to understand this system. I have listened to experts, but all they did was create a reasonable doubt in my mind. The doubt as to whether 33 MCAs actually voted for the motion at the County Assembly,” he said.

The same argument was picked up by Tana River Senator Danson Mungatana, who said that despite the expert evidence, doubts lingered as to whether 33 MCAs voted for the motion.

“Experts created doubt,” he said, referring to the two ICT experts who appeared before the Committee.

“We are dealing with a criminal matter,” he added, stating that the standard of proof for the impeachment of governors should be raised to the same level as criminal trials: beyond a reasonable doubt.

Kisumu Senator Tom Ojienda said the experts had failed to authenticate the credibility of the voting process, leaving doubts in the heads of the senators.

“If there is doubt, evidence should swing in favour of the Governor,” he said.

Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi dismissed the report of the ICT Authority expert, saying that the findings were not supported by documents.

Speaker Amason Kingi terminated the impeachment proceedings after the vote, saying that if the threshold was not achieved at the County Assembly, the Senate had no business conducting the trial.