Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has been impeached by the Kenyan Senate in a historic decision.
The upper house vote and impeached the 59-year-old on five charges out of eleven. The hearings lasted for two days.
All it took was one charge for the Senate to get rid of him. He’s the first deputy president to be kicked out like this since Kenya’s new constitution in 2010.
Gachagua said the allegations were all false, including corruption, insubordination, and money laundering.
Gachagua, who keeps denying the accusations, couldn’t present evidence because he was in the hospital with severe chest pains.
However, the Senate still went ahead and voted without him.
Chaos erupted in the Senate session on Thursday morning when Paul Muite, the lawyer for Gachagua, requested a delay in the proceedings due to his client’s health problems, revealing that the deputy president of Kenya was critically ill.
President Ruto, who’s been having a rocky relationship with Gachagua lately, hasn’t said anything about the impeachment.
Many Kenyans think the impeachment is just politics, with critics saying the government is using it to distract from the anti-tax protests.