Makueni Senator Dan Maanzo has said Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua looked tired moments before suddenly falling ill.
Speaking moments after the Senate session was suspended on Thursday, October 17, he noted that despite looking exhausted, the DP met with a section of Senators from the Mt. Kenya region and they had confirmed that he was okay.
"He just looked tired, in fact, he had lunch at his office with some Senators from his region and they said he was okay. Everyone was expecting him including his lawyers but all of a sudden, we got a report from his lawyers that he was taken ill," Maanzo said.
Despite the unexpected event, Maanzo reiterated that Gachagua would be accorded a fair hearing in the Senate.
"As long as he is in the hospital, he must be accorded a fair chance to be listened to under the constitution. We will wait for the judgment of the Speaker; if in the opinion of the speaker we'll proceed? Then that will have its own place in law," he added.
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Speaking while addressing the Senate, Senior Counsel Paul Muite revealed that Gachagua had fallen ill and could not testify in the Senate.
The lawyer indicated that the DP was not feeling good hence the delays that were witnessed in the afternoon session.
According to Muite, the DP had already been hospitalized, however, the specific hospital and details of the illness were not revealed.
"The sad reality is that the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya has been taken sick. Very sick. As I address this honourable House, he is in hospital. That is the sad reality," Muite explained.
Consequently, the lawyer asked Speaker Amason Kingi to grant him up to 5 PM to find out more about the illness and give a detailed account of the DP's absence.
In his ruling, Kingi suspended the session until 5 PM and directed that the second in command should take the witness stand then.
''Having considered the two sides we will suspend this sitting and resume at exactly 5. The witness will take the witness stand at 5,'' he ruled.
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