Kenya: In the Senate Impeachment Proceedings, Deputy President Gachagua Enters a not Guilty plea

The vice president of Kenya has two days to persuade lawmakers and save his job. In a Senate hearing on Wednesday, October 16, Rigathi Gachagua, who is facing impeachment, entered a not guilty plea to all charges, including corruption, stirring ethnic tensions, and supporting previous anti-government protests.

The Senate will vote Thursday night, and Gachagua’s legal team has Wednesday, October 16, and Thursday, October 17, to cross-examine witnesses. Despite objections to anomalies raised by the deputy president’s solicitors, court decisions this week permitted the House and Senate to continue the impeachment debate.

The claims, according to the 59-year-old congressman, are politically driven. In early October, his supporters and detractors battled in public forums over the impeachment motion against him that the ruling alliance had submitted in parliament.

The lawsuit brings to light the conflict between Gachagua and President William Ruto, whom Ruto had previously promised to steer clear of following his tumultuous tenure as Kenya’s former deputy president, Uhuru Kenyatta. Gachagua might become Kenya’s first impeached sitting deputy president.