Ousted Kericho Governor Erick Mutai has blamed his impeachment on political rivalry, accusing County Assembly Speaker Patrick Mutai of engineering his removal to boost his chances in the 2027 gubernatorial race.

Speaking shortly after his impeachment on August 15, 2025, the immediate former governor described the process as a power struggle disguised as accountability.

Mutai dismissed the accusations made against him, stating that they were not based on governance failures but rather crafted to clear the political path for the speaker.

According to him, the impeachment was a strategic move intended to weaken his political influence before the next election cycle.

“Impeachment was founded on a political competition Patrick Mutai knows very well; that if he wants to face Governor Mutai on the ballot, he knows he can’t win against Governor Mutai; he wants to use this as his shortcut to power. My advice to him is to stop being a coward; you are the biggest coward of our time,” Erick Mutai stated while addressing journalists at Siloam Hospital.

The former county boss said the speaker was aware that defeating him at the ballot would be an uphill task, hence the resort to what he termed backdoor tactics.

He challenged Patrick Mutai to face him fairly in 2027 instead of relying on impeachment.

Mutai insisted that his removal was politically driven and vowed to remain active in the political arena.

He declared that he would not be silenced by what he called underhand methods and promised.

The Governor also revealed that he and his legal team have compiled evidence to challenge the impeachment, which he claims lacked legitimacy.

Mutai said they would be presenting their case to the courts and to the Senate to expose what he termed a flawed and politically tainted process.

“This was not about service delivery or corruption. It was a well-planned political trap meant to stop my re-election. But I’m not going anywhere,” he added.

The impeachment came after a special sitting at the Kericho County Assembly chambers, where 33 out of 47 Members of County Assembly (MCAs) voted to remove him from office. Only 14 opposed the motion.

The MCAs accused him of gross violation of the Constitution, abuse of office, and mismanagement of public funds. With 33 votes in favour, the assembly easily passed the two-thirds majority required to impeach a governor.

However, during an earlier trial at the Senate on October 14, 2024, Mutai had survived a separate impeachment attempt after senators voted to reject the case brought against him.

Now, with the latest vote passed at the county level, the matter is once again expected to move to the Senate, where Mutai hopes to defend himself from removal.