Kenyan Vice President Rigati Gachagua did not appear before the Senate to testify in his impeachment trial, with his lawyer saying he was ill.
The vice president, who was at home in the morning, was due to appear in his defense from 14:30 local time on Thursday evening ahead of a vote on whether to remove him from office.
“The sad reality is that the Vice President of the Republic of Kenya has fallen ill and has been admitted to hospital.” said his attorney, Paul Muite.
Seating was suspended until 17:00.
Speaker of Parliament Amason Kingi said he expected the vice president to take the witness stand.
“The impeachment trial cannot legally be extended beyond Friday,” he said.
Citing the rules of trial procedure, the speaker said the case could proceed if he does not appear or if “exceptional reasons require the vice president to be recorded so that he may appear at a later date.”
Two-thirds of the 67 senators are needed to oust him.
He faces 11 charges, including corruption, inciting racial division and undermining the government.
As the trial began Wednesday, the vice president pleaded not guilty to each charge during a reading at home.
Last week, an overwhelming majority of lawmakers passed the impeachment bill in the National Assembly, setting the stage for a Senate trial.
He fell out with President William Ruto just two years after being elected as a co-candidate.
The conflict came to a head in June when Gachagua accused the head of the intelligence agency of underreporting the scale of mass protests against unpopular tax hikes against Ruto and his government in a move to denigrate the president.
Mr Ruto was forced to withdraw the tax in a major blow to his authority. He sacked his cabinet and brought opposition members into government.
Lawmaker Mwengi Mutuse, who introduced the motion, appeared as a witness before the Senate on Wednesday and accused Gachagua of violating the constitution while the House was hearing the various grounds of his motion.
He characterized the criticism of the vice president as “extraordinary” criminal conduct worthy of impeachment. He cited Gachagua’s statement that the government is like a stock company as an example, and implied that only those who voted for the government can benefit in terms of development and services.
He also accused the vice president of acquiring vast wealth through corrupt deals.
The MP was charged during cross-examination and at times appeared to struggle to defend his evidence.
A video of President Ruto speaking at a rally was shown in the Senate, in which he referred to the people of Murang’a in central Kenya as the government’s ‘major shareholders’.
Gachagua’s lawyer asked Mutuse how the vice president could be criticized for “supporting” the president.
Lawmakers were also pressured to justify the basis for assessing the wealth the vice president had supposedly acquired.
He is accused of acquiring assets worth 5.2 billion Kenyan shillings ($40 million, 31 million pounds) through corrupt means during the two years he became vice president.
He said most of the assets in question came from his late brother’s estate.
During the trial, Elisha Ongoya, one of Gachagua’s lawyers, said all the allegations against the vice president were “false, ridiculous or embarrassing.”
The second witness, Andrew Mulwa, former CEO of the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority, faced difficult questions about his claim that he was threatened by a phone call from the Vice President asking him to return mosquito net tender documents that the President had canceled. He was charged with obstruction.
“This is the first time I have received a call from a sitting vice president requesting documents under investigation. Mr. Chairman, in my 15 years of public service, I have never received such a request,” he said.
Gachagua denied the claims, calling them “ridiculous and baseless,” and his legal team insisted no money was lost, pointing out that the claims came after the process had already been completed.
A third witness, Abdi Mohamud, deputy director of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, gave evidence on allegations of conflict of interest in the matter and allegations that the vice-president received a gift in the form of a cow. public.
The trial was scheduled to continue with the vice president defending himself for the remainder of the day.
At the end of the proceedings, senators will debate the motion and then vote.
The Vice President is a wealthy businessman from the voting-rich central Mount Kenya region.
After Ruto chose him as his running mate in the August 2022 elections, he went from a first-time member of parliament to the second-highest ranking member of Kenya’s leadership in just five years.
His impeachment trial has dominated discussions among many Kenyans and the media in recent weeks.
There are many speculations that impeachment will be passed if opposition party members support the ruling party as they did in the National Assembly.
Gachagua is expected to appeal the decision if it passes.
Kenyan media is already reporting on his possible successors, with incumbent governors Irungu Kang’ata and Anne Waiguru (both from central Kenya), Minister Kithure Kindiki (interior minister) and Musalia Mudavadi (minister for foreign affairs and prime minister) mentioned.
