Kenya’s Deputy President to Fight Impeachment, Won’t Resign

(Bloomberg) -- Kenyan Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said he’d appear at the National Assembly on Tuesday to defend himself in an impeachment process over allegations he violated the constitution, and refused to quit.

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“I have no intention to resign from this job” Gachagua said in a televised address Monday in which he defended the allegations against him. “I will fight to the end.”

To unseat the deputy president, two thirds of members of both the National Assembly and Senate will have to vote in favor of the removal. Members of the National Assembly will vote on Tuesday.

The deputy president is accused of pilfering public funds and making inflammatory pronouncements to stir ethnic hatred, according to a petition filed to parliament by a member of the ruling coalition. Gachagua, 59, denied any wrongdoing and said the claims are “outrageous.”

“That is a scheme to hound me out of office because of other political considerations, and has nothing to do with violation of the Constitution,” Gachagua said.

He said the vote “will be the greatest circus” adding that it is the “height of absurdity and parliament will be the theater of the absurd.”

Gachagua has been increasingly marginalized since President William Ruto allies accused him of backing the demonstrations that erupted in June over plans to raise more than $2 billion in new taxes. The protests led to the deaths of more than 60 people and forced Ruto to scrap the revenue plan and find alternative ways to plug the nation’s budget shortfall and unlock further International Monetary Fund disbursements.

Ousting the deputy president would risk fracturing Ruto’s ruling coalition if lawmakers allied to Gachagua form a breakaway group and begin opposing government plans. Opposition leader Raila Odinga’s coalition is also split on the matter, with some members of his Orange Democratic Movement voicing support for the impeachment, while his long-time ally Kalonzo Musyoka has opposed the ouster.

“The infighting within the ruling party will raise question marks on the government’s focus on reform efforts going forward,” BancTrust & Co. investment bank said in a research note.

Ruto fired his entire cabinet in the wake of the anti-government demonstrations, and then appointed five members of the opposition as ministers. Ruto beat Odinga in the 2022 presidential election with the support of Gachagua — a member of the Kikuyu ethnic group that constitutes Kenya’s most powerful voting bloc.

The frontrunner to succeed Gachagua is Interior Secretary Kithure Kindiki, according to a poll published by Nairobi-based TIFA Research on Oct. 7.

(Updates with more comment from deputy president in paragraph two and six)

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