By Peter Ochieng
Former Kiambu governor Ferdinand Waititu alias Baba Yao has accused Senators of being bribed in order to uphold his impeachment.
The vocal politician was impeached by Kiambu Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) in 2020, after 63 MCAs voted in favour of his removal, 28 failed to turn up for the session, while one voted against the impeachment motion.
The motion was tabled by former Ndenderu MCA Solomon Kinuthia, who accused the governor of engaging in corrupt dealings, abuse of office and gross misconduct.
He was hounded out of office after Senators upheld his impeachment. The former governor now says justice was not served, as ‘money exchanged hands’ to facilitate his removal from office.
“Senators were bribed to uphold my impeachment,” he said on Wednesday. However, he did not name the person (s) who allegedly bribed the legislatures.
The ex-county chief is battling a Sh588 million graft case, which provided grounds for his impeachment before the end of his 5-year term in office.
Waititu now wants the anti-corruption court to acquit him of all charges in the Sh588 million graft case, saying they were instituted because of his overwhelming support for William Ruto ahead of the 2022 succession politics.
At the time, Ruto was the Deputy President. The the President, Uhuru Kenyatta was backing Azimio leader Raila Odinga to succeed him, while some politicians in Mt. Kenya, among the Waititu rallied behind Ruto.
Waititu told trial Magistrate Thomas Nzuki that because he supported Ruto, the then-ruling class engineered his arrest and subsequent charging in court.
“I supported the President so much. At the time he was the deputy president. I was sacrificed in a wider political war linked to the 2022 succession politics,” he stated.
“It was a scheme. This was a political witch-hunt. The case was started to hound me out of office,” Waititu said.
“They succeeded because when I was charged, one of the conditions when bail terms were set was that I should not go back to the office,” he added.
Hearing continues on Thursday.
Waititu’s bribe allegations come days after members of a select National Assembly Committee reportedly received bribes to save agriculture Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mithika Linturi from impeachment.