A Kenyan lawyer trained at Harvard University in the United States has sent shockwaves through legal and public circles after claiming that the right to a fair trial does not apply in the impeachment process of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
In a post on X on Tuesday, lawyer Abdikadir Mohamed, who also served as former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s constitutional advisor, argued that impeachment is not a litigation process and that Gachagua was never a litigant in the first place. On that basis, he maintained that the right to a fair trial simply does not come into play.
His remarks have raised eyebrows across the country, not least because they appear to fly directly in the face of Article 25 of the 2010 Constitution, which explicitly states that the right to a fair trial is a non-derogable right. Non-derogable means exactly what it sounds like. It cannot be suspended, qualified, limited, or traded away under any circumstances, regardless of the nature of the process involved.
What makes the statement even more startling is the identity of the man making it. Abdikadir Mohamed is not a junior legal commentator throwing opinions around on social media. He is a Harvard-trained lawyer and one of the individuals who participated in the very process of framing Kenya’s Constitution. The idea that one of the constitution’s own architects is now advancing an argument that appears to contradict its clearest and most protected provisions has left many Kenyans deeply unsettled.
The question being asked loudly in legal corridors and on the streets is simple. If a man who helped write the Constitution cannot read it correctly or chooses not to, what hope do ordinary Kenyans have of seeing it upheld?
Here is what he wrote on X.
