Sigowet MCA Kiprotich Rogony at the Senate on August 28, 2025/SENATEThe impeachment trial of Kericho Governor Erick Mutai took a dramatic turn in the Senate Thursday after Sigowet MCA Kiprotich Rogony disowned an audio clip said to implicate him in voter bribery.
In a heated cross-examination, Governor Mutai’s lawyer, Katwa Kigen, confronted Rogony with an alleged recording in which he is allegedly heard offering a fellow MCA Sh200,000 and foreign trips to Dubai and Rwanda in exchange for swearing an affidavit.
“That clip is not me,” Rogony said, drawing laughter from the House.
This prompted Kigen to press further. “But the voice is exactly this one, Honourable Rogony. How do you explain that?”
“Counsel, the person who was talking in that clip was a bit drunk. I'm not drunk. I don't even drink; I'm a Seventh Day Adventist,” Rogony responded, dismissing the allegations.
Rogony, who moved the impeachment motion against the governor, was the fifth witness called by the Kericho County Assembly.
His cross-examination followed a claim regarding the voting process itself. Governor Mutai’s team painted a picture of a deeply flawed process.
They argued that the County Assembly conducted the impeachment vote on an insecure online platform that lacked basic safeguards.
According to the governor, MCAs received login credentials via SMS, using only their ID and payroll numbers.
With no secure passwords or verification codes, the system, he said, was open to impersonation, manipulation, and a complete breakdown of confidentiality.
“The voting process was so deficient and was manipulated, hence the Senate cannot act on it,” Mutai told senators in his preliminary objections.
In one striking allegation, Mutai claimed that Rogony himself logged in and voted on behalf of another MCA.
The tense exchanges prompted Senator Abdalla Shakila to suggest that Kericho MCAs be recalled to the Senate to conduct a fresh vote in order to resolve lingering doubts over whether the Assembly met the two-thirds constitutional threshold required to impeach the governor.
Rogony also refuted claims that he engaged in proxy voting or cast ballots on behalf of fellow MCAs.
He further alleged that Sh9 million in donations raised for victims of the Londiani accident never reached the intended beneficiaries.
Mutai, however, maintained that the impeachment process was riddled with irregularities The Senate adjourned until Friday, August 29, at 9am.
Governor Mutai’s legal team will have two hours and forty minutes to present evidence and any remaining witnesses.
The County Assembly, on its part, will be allocated one hour and thirty minutes for cross-examination before the House makes its determination on the motion.
