Kiharu MP and People’s Party of Kenya leader Ndindi Nyoro has come out to explain why he did not support the impeachment of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Nyoro said he declined to append his signature to the impeachment motion because his conscience would not allow him to participate in the process against Gachagua.
Speaking during an interview with Citizen TV’s Jeff Koinange, Nyoro said his decision was guided by personal conviction rather than political considerations.
“The President was in New York, calling people to sign, and he realised I had not signed. He called me and I told him, I will explain it to him when he returns. When he came, I told him that out of conscience, I would not get involved in the impeachment,” Nyoro said.
“I told him out of conscience, not political considerations, I would not get involved in the impeachment."
The Kiharu MP said the decision strained his relationship with Ruto, with the fallout becoming more pronounced after Gachagua was removed from office.
Nyoro said he neither supported the impeachment process nor participated in subsequent political activities surrounding the installation of Gachagua’s successor, a position he suggested further complicated his relationship with the President.
According to the PPK leader, the political consequences of his decision were swift.
He was removed as chairperson of the National Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee before eventually being ejected from the committee altogether.
Nyoro has now linked the deterioration of his relationship with Ruto directly to his refusal to participate in the removal of Gachagua, saying the episode changed the political dynamics between him and the President.
The dispute places Nyoro among a number of political figures whose relationship with the Kenya Kwanza administration changed following Gachagua’s impeachment.
Gachagua’s removal had exposed deep divisions within the administration less than two years after Ruto and his deputy were elected on a joint ticket in the 2022 General Election.
The former deputy president was impeached by the National Assembly on October 8, 2024, after 282 MPs voted in favour of the motion seeking his removal. The motion contained 11 grounds, including allegations of gross violations of the Constitution, undermining the President and Cabinet, and conduct alleged to have threatened national unity.
Gachagua denied the allegations and mounted a defence before the Senate.
On October 17, 2024, the Senate voted to remove him from office, bringing to an end his tenure as Kenya’s second-in-command.
The impeachment marked the dramatic breakdown of the political partnership between Ruto and Gachagua, who had campaigned together in 2022 and relied heavily on support from Mt Kenya to secure victory.
Gachagua has since reinvented himself as a prominent critic of the Ruto administration and has been building a political base ahead of the 2027 General Election.
Nyoro, meanwhile, has established the People’s Party of Kenya as his own political vehicle and has sought to position himself as an independent player in the emerging political realignment.
