Revealed: How UDA orchestrated Gachagua’s impeachment

Months after his dramatic ouster, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s impeachment remains a hot-button issue.

Just recently, President William Ruto denied claims that he initiated the plan to impeach Gachagua.  

Ruto said he twice attempted to dissuade MPs from tabling the motion but was ultimately overruled, adding that the legislators were determined to proceed with or without his support.

While he failed to fully explain what unfolded within his party leading to the impeachment, Ruto described the breakdown of their political alliance, attributing it to Gachagua’s frequent conflicts with government officials.

However, former UDA Secretary-General Cleophas Malala has now offered deeper insight.  

According to him, the process began within the Party and was already in motion long before his own ouster.  

Malala’s reluctance to back the impeachment, he says, cost him his position and eventually led to Gachagua’s removal.

“I personally advised him, as the Secretary General, that the impeachment is not good for us politically. I told him that this is going to destabilise our government. But the president was adamant. He looked at me as his enemy.”

Speaking on Spice FM on Thursday, April 24, Malala claimed that UDA leaders initially proposed creating two deputy party leader positions. 

Cleophas Malalah : I advised the President, as Secretary General, that impeaching Rigathi would sink the ship. He dismissed me as an enemy. I was then asked to sign the impeachment. They even proposed having two deputy party leaders to replace him seamlessly. I warned it would… pic.twitter.com/b97Cecn61T

— SpiceFM (@SpiceFMKE) April 24, 2025

Their plan was that once Gachagua was ousted, the other deputy leader would take over as deputy president.

He explained that under the UDA constitution, the party’s presidential candidate serves as party leader, while the deputy party leader assumes the role of deputy president.

“They wanted to have two so that the transition would be smooth. I advised them against that. I told them that this would destabilise the party, but they insisted. So the only thing was that Malala must go, and that is why they kicked me out,” he added.

Malala was sacked on August 4 last year. Two months later, an impeachment motion against Gachagua was tabled in Parliament, who would be impeached seventeen days later.