NAIROBI – Kenya’s Senate voted Thursday to remove Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua from office in an impeachment trial on corruption and other allegations, hours after the deputy president was taken to the hospital with chest pains.
Senators approved five of 11 grounds for impeachment against Gachagua, making him the first sitting deputy president to be removed from office in impeachment proceedings.
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The vote on the first of the five counts was 54-13, well above the two-thirds majority required to convict and remove him from office. The lower house of Parliament, the National Assembly, voted 282-44 last week to impeach the deputy president.
Gachagua had pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the 11 charges and had been expected to be cross-examined by lawyers from the Assembly in the afternoon. But the hearing was briefly adjourned after Gachagua was hospitalized and his lawyers asked for a pause to give him until Tuesday to appear before the chamber.
However, Assembly lawyers said Gachagua's defense already had been presented and that the Senate was bound by the constitution to continue the proceedings.
Gachagua faced allegations that included corruption, inciting ethnic divisions and support for anti-government protests that saw demonstrators storm the Parliament
The case has highlights divisions within the ruling party of President William Ruto, and friction between Ruto and Gachagua over government policy. The deputy president had been accused of insubordination when he opposed the government's policy of forced evictions during heavy rains that caused flooding and deaths.
During his defense before the Assembly last week, Gachagua said he believed the impeachment motion had the president’s nod, and he has asked legislators to make their decision “without intimidation and coercion.” Ruto has not commented publicly on the impeachment.
Gachagua's lawyer Paul Muite said Thursday that doctors told him the deputy president was suffering from “intense chest pains” and needed “complete rest.”
Dan Gikonyo, a doctor at Karen Hospital, told journalists outside the facility that the deputy president would be observed for up to three days. “Stress can cause heart problems and the DP is definitely in a lot of stress,” Dr. Gikonyo said.
Earlier Thursday, lawyers had cross-examined witnesses presented by the Assembly the previous day, including the legislator who moved the impeachment motion and the anticorruption agency’s boss. At one point Gachagua’s legal team asked to expunge the affidavit of a key witness, the elected governor for the capital Nairobi, after the governor failed to turn up.
The tensions over Gachagua's impeachment risk introducing more uncertainty for investors and others in East Africa’s commercial hub.
Ruto, who came to office claiming to represent Kenya’s poorest citizens, has faced widespread criticism for his efforts to raise taxes in an effort to find ways to pay off foreign creditors. But the public opposition led him to shake up his cabinet and back off certain proposals.