Kenya Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s impeachment: Why it matters
Al Jazeera
Two years after taking office, Gachagua fell out with President Ruto, leading to his ouster from office.
Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has been removed from office after he was impeached in a historic vote in the country’s Senate on Thursday night.
Gachagua becomes the first deputy president to be removed from office in this way since impeachment was introduced in Kenya’s 2010 constitution.
The 59-year-old, who was once a close ally of President William Ruto, faced 11 charges including insubordination to the president, inciting ethnic violence, corruption, undermining government and money laundering, among others.
Gachagua rejected the charges against him as being politically motivated.
But the Senate – which only had to find him guilty of one charge to remove him – decided he was guilty of five of the 11 that Gachagua faced.
