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Kenya’s Senate has voted to impeach the country’s deputy president, an unprecedented move that risks stirring a major political crisis and potential unrest in an East African nation widely viewed as a stable democracy in an increasingly volatile region.
The deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, was impeached only months after widespread protests gripped the country over a finance bill that Kenyans feared would steeply raise the cost of living.
After that period of political and economic uncertainty, observers say the impeachment gives President William Ruto a chance to consolidate his power and rid himself of a once-powerful ally he has come to view as a liability.
It also risks intensifying ethnic tensions among the ruling elite in Kenya. Mr. Ruto and Mr. Gachagua are from the Kalenjin and Kikuyu ethnic groups that have dominated power in Kenya since independence. Leaders from the two groups have previously banded together to win political power, but Mr. Gachagua’s ouster could stir tension between the sides.
The impeachment “will sow considerable uncertainty, as Gachagua’s substantial constituency views his ouster as a betrayal and will seek to ensure Ruto pays a political price,” said Murithi Mutiga, the Africa program director at the International Crisis Group.
Many Kenyans saw the proceedings as politically motivated and a diversion from the many challenges ailing the country, including corruption, rising debt and unemployment. Although Mr. Ruto remained mum throughout the dramatic trial, political experts said it was unlikely that it would have occurred without his support. Mr. Ruto’s ruling coalition holds a significant majority in both houses of Parliament.
“This is a gamble by Ruto but a bold one,” Mr. Mutiga said.
With the impeachment proceedings now concluded, observers say the discontent against Mr. Ruto’s administration is likely to resurface. Demonstrations against the government have taken place at universities, schools and the main international airport in Nairobi, the capital, in recent weeks.
Some protesters have been calling for Mr. Ruto to be impeached, too.
“The deputy president is elected together with the president and not appointed,” said George Towett Diano, a human-rights activist who was abducted during the recent anti-government protests. And because “they came in as a pair, they need to go as one.”
Kenya’s Senate voted to impeach Mr. Gachagua on Thursday night, after two days of hearings, on five of the 11 charges raised against him, including corruption, money laundering, stirring ethnic hatred, undermining the judiciary’s independence, attacking the intelligence services and gross violation of the Constitution.
Kenya’s National Assembly, the legislature’s lower house, overwhelmingly voted last week on a similar motion against him.
Mr. Gachagua has vehemently denied the accusations and said he was being treated like a “spent cartridge.”
He did not testify in front of the Senate on Thursday, with his lawyer saying the deputy president had been taken to the hospital with intense chest pains. But senators nonetheless continued the proceedings, prompting his defense team to leave the building in protest.
When the voting concluded, the Senate speaker, Amason Kingi, said Mr. Gachagua now “ceases to hold office.”
On Friday morning, Mr. Ruto nominated Kithure Kindiki, a legal scholar who is the interior minister, as the new deputy president.
Activists and protesters have accused Mr. Kindiki of defending the police’s excessive use of force against demonstrations. At least 60 people were killed and hundreds more were kidnapped, arrested and tortured during the antigovernment demonstrations this year, according to human rights groups.
The National Assembly approved Mr. Kindiki’s nomination on Friday afternoon. However, a High Court judge temporarily blocked his appointment until Oct. 24, when a case against the impeachment will be heard.
Mr. Gachagua, 59, rose to the deputy presidency two years ago after years of working at various levels of government. Mr. Ruto chose him as a running mate in the 2022 election because of his business connections, his skill at mobilizing supporters, and the fact that he hailed from Kenya’s wealthy and vote-rich central region.
But relations between Mr. Ruto and Mr. Gachagua deteriorated in recent months, especially after some government leaders accused Mr. Gachagua and allies of helping finance the anti-tax protests that swept the nation starting in June. Mr. Gachagua has denied those accusations. Mr. Ruto also cut a pact with Raila Odinga, the country’s opposition leader, after the antigovernment protests, an alliance that many viewed as hastening Mr. Gachagua’s ouster.
Clashes between Kenyan presidents and their deputies are not uncommon, and have led to deputies being fired or resigning. Mr. Ruto, who was deputy president for a decade, also fell out with his immediate predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta.
But Mr. Gachagua is the first to be impeached under the new Constitution that Kenya adopted over a decade ago.
The impeachment was “another example of the strength of Kenya’s institutions, as it was the first such process attempted since the adoption of the progressive 2010 Constitution,” Mr. Mutiga said.
The novelty of the impeachment now leaves the country in uncharted territory, experts say, with many looking to see how Mr. Gachagua and his allies will navigate his ouster in the coming weeks.
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