Revealed: List of top lawyers set to represent Gachagua

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is said to be banking on the services of about 20 law firms that will defend him against 11 charges contained in the motion seeking his ouster at Parliament.

The DP who has gone under in the last five days is said to have been meeting the lawyers in a bid to put up a spirited fight to thwart the attempt to kick him out of office.

Sources privy to Gachagua’s battery of lawyers say the team will be led by veteran Senior Counsel Paul Muite. If the motion passes, Muite will team up with one of Kenya’s best legal minds to face Gachagua’s accusers at the National Assembly and the Senate.

The team is also considering going to the Supreme Court if they fail to save Gachagua in Parliament and the lower courts.

Victor Swanya, one of the lawyers who filed a case earlier this week to stop his impeachment motion at the National Assembly, in an interview confirmed that Muite will be the face of Gachagua’s legal team.

Swanya confirmed that a team of about 20 lawyers will represent the DP.

 “Senior Counsel Paul Muite is the one who is leading us. We have counsels Tom Macharia and Amos Kisilu. Elisha Ongoya and others,” he said.

According to Swanya, they have assessed the charges facing Gachagua and they are prepared to take on the matter head-on.

“We have looked through the points, the accusations of the deputy president, and we’re prepared to deal with the,” he said.

Gachagua’s legal team is banking their defence on the public participation exercise which they say did not meet the constitutional threshold.

"You are giving a notice at night and people are supposed to wake up and participate in that exercise. How fair is that? We have people who worship on Saturday and such they cannot participate in the exercise. Notice should be reasonable," he said.

The DP is said to have met his legal team on Saturday in one of the regular meetings that aim to mount a fightback plan.

Muite is a seasoned Lawyers who has been in the corridors of justice for decades representing clients in several top cases that have been the subject of public concerns.

He successfully represented former Embu Governor Martin Wambora who challenged his impeachment by the Senate Assembly in courts while serving as county boss.

In the case, Muite relied on the failure to conduct adequate public participation to thwart the removal of Embu governors from office.

Ongoya on his part is remembered as one of the top legal minds who mounted a spirited fight that killed the Building Bridges Initiative that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Kenya.

He was the lead counsel of Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza in the last two impeachment motions at the Senate Assembly.

He successfully represented Mwangaza in the first impeachment in which Mwangaza won after Senators voted to keep him in office.

In the second impeachment, however, Senators voted to remove the governor from office, which is currently pending in court after her lawyers secured orders staying the Senate verdict.