Kenya’s political court battles often resemble travelling theatre: grim men in dark suits, files stacked high enough to stop bullets and lawyers speaking in enough Latin to make citizens suspect the Constitution was drafted somewhere near the Vatican.
On Wednesday, May 13, within the courtroom addressing petitions related to Rigathi Gachagua’s impeachment saga, the atmosphere unexpectedly shifted into the realm of comedy.
Not loud comedy. The slow, painful kind.
The kind where one man keeps digging himself deeper with supreme confidence while another watches patiently as the shovel disappears underground.
By midday, social media had turned lawyer Muthomi Thiankolu into the unwitting star of Kenya’s latest courtroom meme festival, following his cross-examination of renowned cardiologist Dr Dan Gikonyo, which appeared to veer spectacularly off course.
READ ALSO: Gaucho’s Mama Lucy Board Appointment Sends Kenya Into Full Comedy Emergency
Thiankolu, representing Deputy President Kithure Kindiki, approached the witness like a man marching into procedural warfare.
Dr Gikonyo, meanwhile, sat with the calm exhaustion of a senior consultant who has spent three decades explaining blood pressure to patients who still believe garlic and goat soup can solve everything.
Then came the questions.
And with them came the collective tightening of Kenyan eyebrowbs online.
At one point, Thiankolu repeatedly pressed the doctor about the formatting and attachment of medical documents, circling technicalities with the determination of a man searching for a lost coin under a sofa.
Let me Laugh a Bit!!Gachagua Personal Dr Gikonyo Cracks Lawyers with Laughter! pic.twitter.com/Hhg05FtfW3
— Mutembei TV (@MutembeiTV) May 13, 2026
Dr Gikonyo finally responded with a line so dry and surgical that it instantly escaped the courtroom and exploded across X, TikTok, and Facebook.
“I’m here as a doctor, not a lawyer.”
The room briefly froze.
It was not an angry answer. That would have softened the blow.
Instead, it landed with the calm disappointment of a lecturer realising a student has revised the wrong topic entirely.
“You won’t choose my questions”
Still, Thiankolu pushed on.
“You won’t choose for me the questions to ask,” the lawyer snapped during another tense exchange.
But by then, the internet had already sensed a spectacle.
Kenyans online descended on the clips like football fans reviewing a goalkeeper’s blunder frame by frame.
One viral post described the exchange as “a consultant physician supervising a confused intern during ward rounds”.
Another joked that Dr Gikonyo looked “like a man being asked to explain open-heart surgery to somebody holding a spoon”.
The humour was not necessarily about Thiankolu’s intellect – he remains one of Kenya’s most respected lawyers – but about the painful mismatch in rhythm and energy.
The lawyer attacked procedure. The doctor answered substance. One arrived armed with technical traps; the other responded with the clinical composure of a man accustomed to monitoring failing heart rhythms at 3am.
READ ALSO: The Woman in Green: Story Behind Kenya’s Most Talked-About Rain Photo
Even the pauses became comedic material.
Each silence from Dr Gikonyo carried the weary look of someone wondering how a discussion about a patient’s treatment had somehow mutated into an argument over photocopying etiquette.
Memes, mockery and medical calm
By evening, the clips had spread across Kenyan social media like wildfire in dry grass.
TikTok creators added dramatic soundtracks. X users minted memes at industrial speed. Facebook commenters turned the exchanges into full comedic skits.
Why are Government Advocates embarrassing themselves asking Dr Daniel Gikonyo questions whose answers they do not themselves, know?
— Nelson Havi SC (@NelsonHavi) May 13, 2026
Here are some of the reactions:
Lawyer Nelson Havi: Why are government advocates embarrassing themselves asking Dr Daniel Gikonyo questions whose answers they do not know themselves?
Sammy Mwiti: Precisely, SC. That cross-examination by Muthomi Thiankolu was shoddy, amateurish and clearly out of tune. Not surprising, therefore, that the good doctor called his bluff and requested—sarcastically—a moment to laugh. A courtroom comedy of errors!
Chris Kimathi: We were discussing the intentions of that kind of cross-examination! However, maybe Snr Counsel and my teacher Muthomi Thiankolu had a strategy that was unknown to us.
PAY ATTENTION: Reach us at info@gotta.news.
