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Kenyan senators have voted to remove Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua from office despite his failure to testify at his impeachment trial after his lawyer said he had been taken to hospital.
In one of the most dramatic days in Kenya’s recent political history, Gachagua had been due to appear in the Senate after lunch to defend himself, a day after he had pleaded not guilty to 11 charges.
However, Gachagua, popularly known as Riggy G, did not show up and his lawyer requested a postponement saying his client was suffering from chest pains and was being treated by doctors at The Karen Hospital.
Senators chose to continue the trial without him, prompting the defence team to leave the chamber.
The senators’ refusal to delay proceedings until Saturday – as long as would have been legally allowed – shows how determined they were to get rid of Gachagua, several months after he fell out with President William Ruto.
Last week, an overwhelming majority of MPs in the National Assembly – the lower house of parliament – voted to impeach him, setting the stage for his two-day trial in the Senate.
Gachagua, a wealthy businessman from the vote-rich central Mount Kenya region who was present in the house in the morning, has described the impeachment as a “political lynching”.
On Thursday evening, the required two-thirds of the 67 senators upheld five charges including inciting ethnic divisions and and violating his oath of office – enough for him to to be removed from office.
He was cleared of six charges including corruption and money-laundering.
This comes just two years after Ruto and Gachagua were elected on a joint ticket.
The vote draws a line under months of infighting at the top level of government and consolidates Ruto’s hold on power.
The row came to a head in June when Gachagua, in an act seen as undermining the president, blamed the head of the intelligence agency for not properly briefing Ruto and the government over the magnitude of mass protests against unpopular tax hikes.
In a huge blow to his authority, Ruto had just been forced to withdraw the taxes. He sacked his cabinet and brought in members of the opposition to his government.
Ruto has not commented on the impeachment of his deputy.
At the start of the trial, one of Gachagua’s lawyers, Elisha Ongoya, said all of the allegations were “either false, ridiculous or embarrassing”.
Before the vote, Gachagua had said he would challenge the decision if it passed.
A doctor is quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying the 59-year-old had gone to hospital with heart trouble, but was stable and undergoing tests.
Kenyan media have already been reporting about his possible replacements, with four people mentioned:
- Murang’a County Governor Irungu Kang’ata
- Kirinyaga County Governor Anne Waiguru
- Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki
- Foreign Affairs Minister Musalia Mudavadi.
Additional reporting by the BBC’s Jewel Kiriungi in Nairobi.