High Court decision on Gachagua's impeachment case is injudicious

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. [File]

A judge is an honourable person and is expected to deliver reasonable decisions always. The reasoning in the case  of Rigathi Gachagua brings to the fore urgent questions about the strange and contradictory analysis and final decision of the honourable judges. I will not bother you with the agony and anxiety I endured sitting for four straight hours that it took the three judges to read through the judgment. You will accuse me of dozing while the judges, oozing wisdom, dissected the case.

But I do remember one of them reading out that the Senate denied Mr Gachagua his right to a fair trial when it declined to adjourn the impeachment motion to allow him time to recuperate from his illness and appear personally before the Senate. This was a fundamental finding by the court. The finding that the Senate in fact erred in locking Gachagua out of his own case is fatal to the respondent's case. This refusal goes to the very heartbeat of the case.