nairobi, kenya — A court has blocked Kenya President William Ruto’s nominee for new deputy president a day after lawmakers had voted to remove the former deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, from office over accusations of gross misconduct and undermining the president.
Ruto had wasted no time filling the deputy president position after Gachagua was impeached and removed from office late Thursday.
Ruto, who had 14 days to make a choice, nominated Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki to replace Gachagua. A few hours later, Kindiki’s nomination was approved by 236 members of the national assembly who voted yes, with no abstentions and no votes against.
Shortly after that, a court in Nairobi intervened and suspended the Thursday senate resolution until it can hear the case on October 24.
In a ruling on Friday, the court said that Gachagua’s petition against the move to replace him raised “substantial questions of law and public interest.”
Meanwhile, some Kenyans like James Chege say impeaching Gachagua was the right move.
“The outgoing president was too abrasive. He couldn’t tone down his language. He seemed divisive, so I support the move for the president to nominate Professor Kindinki,” Chege said. “He’s somebody who’s calm, a worker. I hope he’ll do a good job supporting the president, the cabinet and the entire Kenyan society.”
Other Kenyans, like Edwin Mugalo, disagree with Gachagua’s impeachment, especially because the deputy president fell ill while the proceedings were happening.
“It wasn’t good, especially when you are impeaching someone who’s in the hospital. It was so untimely,” Mugalo said. “You would’ve given him time or rather they would’ve sat down together and had a discussion. Everybody makes a mistake. You sit down and agree this is where I’ve made a mistake and move forward. But impeaching him wasn’t the right thing.”
Gachagua was Ruto’s running mate in the 2022 elections. And for Dominic Orenge, people had voted for a ticket.
“They were actually elected for five years so that we can actually read their leadership for five years so that when 2027 comes, we can actually look at what they’ve said, what they’ve done for the country,” Orenge said.
Of the 11 charges leveled against Gachagua including accusations of gross misconduct, irregular acquisition of wealth and undermining the president, Gachagua was found guilty of five.
Francis Khayundi, an assistant professor of international law at USIU-Africa, told VOA the decision to vote out Gachagua was expected.
“It was a bit biased from the get-go, particularly listening to some of the submissions,” Khayundi said. “From a legal standpoint, looking at the threshold for impeaching a … deputy president in this case seems to have been very low. But at the same time there was an attempt to follow the constitution.”
Khayundi said while it looks like a fait accompli, it’ll be interesting to see what comes next, especially because the ousted deputy president was admitted to the hospital and the process could’ve been delayed, allowing him to take the witness stand.
“I can assure you that it’s not the end of it,” Khayundi said. “I think we shall have the courts come into play. Already we’ve seen as of last night with the DP falling ill and his legal representatives asking for more time and that being shot down. So already, those are grounds to ask for a rethink of the whole process.”
New Deputy President Kindiki has been part of Ruto’s cabinet for two years and came under fire for supporting alleged police brutality during anti-government protests earlier this year.
He also faced criticism when Kenya decided to send police forces to Haiti, something he defended as an international obligation.
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