Kenya deputy president ousted in historic impeachment

NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP)— Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was ousted from office on Thursday after being impeached in an unprecedented political saga that has kept the nation on edge.

In a historic move, the Senate voted to impeach Gachagua on five of 11 charges, after a similar motion was overwhelmingly approved by the lower house National Assembly last week.

The vote capped an day of drama which saw the 59-year-old known as “Riggy G” fail to testify in his defence after being admitted to hospital with chest pains.

The impeachment is the culmination of a bitter falling out with President William Ruto, who he helped win the 2022 election by rallying support from the vote-rich Mount Kenya region.

He is the first deputy president to be ousted in this manner since impeachment was introduced in Kenya’s revised 2010 constitution.

Gachagua was found guilty on charges including threatening judges and practising ethnically divisive politics, but cleared of corruption and money-laundering.

The process has created a mood of political uncertainty in a country regarded as a stable democracy in the volatile East Africa region.

While his fate was being determined in parliament, Gachagua underwent tests in hospital in the Nairobi suburb of Karen.

“He came in with a lot of chest pain,” Karen Hospital’s chief cardiologist Dan Gikonyo told reporters, adding that Gachagua was in a stable condition but would remain in hospital for at least 48-72 hours.

The Senate’s decision not to postpone Thursday’s hearing after Gachagua fell ill prompted his lawyers to walk out in protest. They argued that he had a constitutional right to testify in his defence.

The 349-member National Assembly voted by an overwelming 282 votes on October 8 to impeach him, more than the two-thirds required.

Unlike the process in the lower house, where MPs delivered their verdict on the entire motion, senators needed to back just one charge, by at least two-thirds of the votes, for the impeachment to succeed.

The Senate trial went ahead after Gachagua failed in multiple court challenges to halt the process, the last one just hours before the Senate trial began on Wednesday.

Gachagua had denied all the charges against him as “nonsensical” and “outrageous” and claimed he was being treated like a “spent cartridge”.

“This is what we call political deceit, conmanship and betrayal,” he said.

Ruto had not made any public comment on the impeachment, but Gachagua has said the process could not have gone ahead without his boss’s blessing.

No criminal proceedings have been launched against him, and Gachagua can fight the impeachment in the courts now the parliamentary process is completed.

Ruto has 14 days to nominate a new deputy.

Among the names of possible successors floated by the Kenyan media are Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki, Foreign Minister and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and a county governor, Anne Waiguru.

A powerful businessman from Kenya’s biggest tribe, the Kikuyu, Gachagua weathered previous corruption scandals to become deputy leader as Ruto’s running mate in the closely fought 2022 election.

But in recent weeks, he has complained of being sidelined by the president, while also being accused of supporting youth-led anti-government protests that broke out in June.

Political tensions run high since the sometimes deadly demonstrations erupted over unpopular tax hikes, exposing divisions in the top echelons of power and the ruling party.

Addressing churchgoers in his stronghold of central Kenya on Sunday, Gachagua nevertheless called for his supporters to remain calm.

“Let’s preach and maintain peace irrespective of the outcome. Kenya is our country,” he said.