Kenya’s Parliament to vote on impeaching Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua

Gachagua says he will fight allegations of corruption, undermining the government and stirring ethnic hatred ‘to the end’.

Kenyan members of parliament are due to vote on impeaching Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua for alleged corruption and undermining the government, among others.

Gachagua has rejected the allegations and is expected to defend himself in parliament on Tuesday afternoon.

“I am innocent of all these charges,” he said in a televised speech late on Monday as he denied in detail the allegations that include amassing a large unexplained property portfolio and promoting “ethnic balkanisation”.

“I have no intention whatsoever to resign from this job. I will fight to the end,” Gachagua added.

Lawmakers launched the impeachment process on October 1, with 291 MPs signing up to the motion, well beyond the 117 minimum required.

If the lower house, the National Assembly, votes by more than two-thirds to impeach, the upper house, the Senate, will be asked to uphold the motion by the same margin.

The MPs have listed 11 grounds for impeachment, but prosecutors have not formally charged Gachagua, and no judicial inquiry has been opened against him.

Gachagua backed President William Ruto in his 2022 election win and helped secure a large block of votes from the populous Mount Kenya region.

The deputy president says he has since been sidelined, amid widespread reports in local media that he has fallen out with Ruto as political alliances have shifted.

Ruto sacked most of his cabinet and brought in members of the main opposition following nationwide protests against unpopular tax hikes in June and July in which more than 50 people were killed.

Several MPs allied with Gachagua, accused of funding the protests, were summoned by police last month.

Gachagua was charged in 2021 with acquiring unexplained wealth totalling more than 7.3 billion Kenyan shillings ($57m).

That case was dropped when he and Ruto took office. But now lawmakers accuse him of amassing 5.2 billion shillings ($40m) during his two years as deputy president, despite a reported annual salary of $93,000.

He says his wealth comes from his family’s business dealings in real estate, hospitality and construction.

Gachagua outraged many in Ruto’s coalition for likening the government to a company and suggesting that those who voted for the coalition had first claim on public sector jobs and development projects.

If impeached, he would become the first deputy president to be removed in this way since the possibility was introduced in Kenya’s revised 2010 constitution.