Gachagua Suffers Blow as CJ Koome Reassigns Impeachment Cases to Judges He Rejected

Chief Justice Martha Koome has handed former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua a huge blow after she assigned three petitions involving his impeachment to a bench he had previously rejected.

The three petitions include the Milimani Petition No. E565 of 2024, Kerugoya Petition No. E015 of 2024, and Kerugoya Petition No. E013 of 2024.

In an official notice from the Judiciary, signed by the Assistant Deputy Registrar of the Constitutional and Human Rights Division, Koome allocated the cases to Justice Eric Ogolla (presiding), Anthony Mrima, and Freda Mugambi.

At the same time, the CJ directed that the cases be merged and heard in open court on May 29, 2025.

The hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in Courtroom 18 for directions.

The move to hand the cases back to the three judges comes after the Court of Appeal ruled that Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu violated the law when allocating them to the Ogolla-led bench.

Gachagua had argued that the empanelment of the bench was illegal as the mandate purely lies with Chief Justice Martha Koome—arguments the Court of Appeal agreed with.

The three-judge bench of the appellate court, presided over by Justices Daniel Musinga (President), Mumbi Ngugi, and Francis Tuiyott, ruled that assigning judges is a constitutional duty of only the Chief Justice.

The three judges dismissed arguments that CJ Koome was out of the country and, therefore, could not handle the empanelment matter.

“In this day and age, we do not think that the Chief Justice can be ‘electronically absent’ for an inordinately long period of time, such that she cannot empanel a bench or give appropriate directions. That can be done electronically from any part of the world. In this case, there was no suggestion that the Chief Justice was electronically unreachable or physically unable to perform her constitutional administrative function,” the judges ruled.