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By Humphrey Malalo and Hereward Holland
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Thursday filed a petition to the high court in Nairobi seeking to halt an impeachment process launched against him by lawmakers earlier this week, documents showed.
Allies of Kenyan President William Ruto tabled a motion in parliament on Tuesday to impeach Gachagua, accusing him of stirring ethnic hatred, undermining the government and amassing a large and unexplained property portfolio.
Gachagua says he has been sidelined and has denied accusations by Ruto allies that he was behind violent anti-government protests earlier this year.
Gachagua said the impeachment motion was based on falsehoods that constituted a "choreographed political lynching designed to defeat the sovereign will of the Kenyan people expressed at the presidential election held August 2022", according to the petition documents seen by Reuters.
Hailing from the populous Mount Kenya region, Gachagua helped mobilise a large voting bloc that helped Ruto win power, but the two have reportedly since fallen out.
The deputy president has become less influential since Ruto nominated members of the main opposition coalition to his government after protests in June and July against planned tax hikes in which more than 50 people were killed.
Ruto has not commented publicly on the impeachment proceedings and calls to his office this week were not answered.
The impeachment process begins with a programme of public participation on Friday. Gachagua will be allowed to respond to the impeachment allegations in the lower chamber of parliament on Oct. 8.
Gachagua said that asking the public to make oral and written submissions before he could defend himself violated his rights to a fair hearing.
"I have a cogent basis that demolishes each and every of the 11 alleged grounds set out in the (impeachment) motion which will not be considered by the public if the public participation exercise... proceeds," Gachagua wrote in the documents.
(Reporting by Hereward Holland and Humphrey Malalo; Editing by Bate Felix, Christina Fincher, Ammu Kannampilly and Alex Richardson)
