Kenya deputy president ousted in historic impeachment

Kenya's Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was ousted from office after being impeached in an unprecedented political saga that has kept the nation on edge.

In a historic move, the Senate voted on Thursday 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 a 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.

'Spent cartridge'

The 349-member National Assembly voted by an overwhelming 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.

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.