Rigathi Gachagua, who has fallen out with President Ruto, was too ill to attend proceedings, his lawyers said.The Kenyan Senate has voted to oust Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in a historic impeachment vote.
The upper house has so far voted on Thursday to impeach the 59-year-old on five charges out of a total of 11 against him, following two days of hearings.
The Senate only had to find him guilty of one charge to remove him from office.
He is the first deputy president to be removed in this manner since impeachment was introduced in Kenya’s revised 2010 constitution.
A similar motion against President William Ruto’s number two was overwhelmingly approved by the lower house National Assembly last week.
The Senate session had plunged into disarray earlier Thursday after Gachagua was admitted to hospital with severe chest pains and failed to testify in his defence.
The 11 charges – which Gachagua had vigorously denied – included corruption, insubordination, money-laundering, undermining the government, practising ethnically divisive politics, bullying public officers and threatening a judge.
Last-minute illness
The Senate proceeded with the vote despite Gachagua’s absence from proceedings as a result of illness.
He was due to defend himself against the allegations, which he denies, after allies of President Ruto said he was disloyal.
But after Gachagua failed to appear, his lawyer Paul Muite said the deputy president had been hospitalised with intense chest pains, urging the Senate to pause proceedings for a couple of days.
“The sad reality is that the deputy president of the republic of Kenya has …