Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has been removed from office following a historic impeachment vote by the country’s Senate on Thursday. This unprecedented political event marks the first time a deputy president has been impeached since Kenya’s revised 2010 constitution introduced the process.
The Senate voted to convict Gachagua on five of the 11 charges brought against him, including “gross violation” of the constitution, threatening judges, and practicing ethnically divisive politics. He was cleared of other charges such as corruption and money laundering. The impeachment follows a similar motion overwhelmingly approved by the lower house National Assembly last week.
The dramatic proceedings were marked by Gachagua’s absence due to hospitalization. The 59-year-old deputy president, known as “Riggy G,” was admitted to Karen Hospital in Nairobi with severe chest pains, according to chief cardiologist Dan Gikonyo. This led to Gachagua’s lawyers walking out of the Senate hearing in protest, arguing that their client had a constitutional right to testify in his defense.
Senate speaker Amason Kingi officially announced the decision: “The Senate has resolved to remove from office, by impeachment, his excellency Rigathi Gachagua, the deputy president of the Republic of Kenya. Accordingly, his excellency Rigathi Gachagua ceases to hold office.”
The impeachment is the culmination of a bitter falling out between Gachagua and President William Ruto, whom Gachagua had helped win the 2022 election by rallying support from the vote-rich Mount Kenya region. Gachagua has claimed that the impeachment process could not have proceeded without Ruto’s blessing, calling it “political deceit, conmanship and betrayal.”
This political crisis has created an atmosphere of uncertainty in Kenya, a country generally regarded as a stable democracy in the volatile East Africa region. President Ruto now has 14 days to choose a new deputy, with several potential successors being discussed in Kenyan media, including Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki and Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi.
The impeachment process has exposed deep divisions within Kenya’s ruling party and comes in the wake of recent anti-government protests over unpopular tax hikes. Despite the political tension, Gachagua had called for calm among his supporters in his central Kenya stronghold, urging them to maintain peace regardless of the outcome.
