NEWS
“Kenyan Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has failed to appear in Senate to testify at his impeachment trial, with his lawyer saying that he has been taken ill.
The deputy president, who was present in the house in the morning, had been due to appear from 14:30 local time (11:30 GMT) to defend himself before a vote was due on Thursday evening about whether to remove him from office.
“The sad reality is that the deputy president of the Republic of Kenya has been taken sick and is… in hospital,” said his lawyer Paul Muite.
Sittings have been suspended until 17:00.
Speaker of Parliament Amason Kingi said they were expecting the deputy president to take the witness stand then.
“This is a time-bound process, unfortunately,” he said – the impeachment trial that cannot be legally extended beyond Friday.
The speaker said the case could then proceed without his presence or “for exceptional reasons to be recorded to permit a later appearance of the deputy president” after the process, citing a rule of the trial procedures.
Two-thirds of the 67 senators are required to oust him.
He faces 11 charges, including corruption, inciting ethnic divisions and undermining government.
As the trial began on Wednesday, the deputy president pleaded not guilty to each of the charges as they were read out in the house.
An overwhelming majority of MPs in the National Assembly last week voted to approve his impeachment, setting the stage for the Senate trial.
The trial had been planned to continue with the deputy president defending himself for the rest of the day.
At the conclusion of the process, senators will debate the motion and then take a vote.
The deputy president is a wealthy businessman from the vote-rich central Mount Kenya region.
In just five years, he rose from being a first-time MP to become the number two in Kenya’s leadership, after Ruto picked him as his running mate in the August 2022 election.
His impeachment trial has dominated the discussions of many Kenyans and the media in recent weeks.
Many observers expect his impeachment to go through if the opposition members support the ruling coalition as they did in the National Assembly.Gachagua is expected to challenge the decision if it passes.
Kenyan media have already been reporting about his possible replacements, with serving governors Irungu Kang’ata and Anne Waiguru (both from central Kenya) and ministers Kithure Kindiki (interior) and Musalia Mudavadi (foreign affairs and prime cabinet secretary) being mentioned.
Source: BBC
