Kenyan Vice President Rigathi Gachagua failed to testify before the Senate in his impeachment trial, with his lawyer saying he was ill.
The vice president was present in the morning and was due to appear in court at 14:30 local time (11:30 GMT) to defend himself ahead of a vote on whether to remove him from office on Thursday night.
“The sad reality is that the Vice President of the Republic of Kenya is ill … and is in the hospital,” said his lawyer Paul Mutter.
The meeting is suspended until 17:00.
Parliament Speaker Amason Kingi said they expected the vice president to testify at that time.
“Unfortunately, this is a time-limited process,” he said. The impeachment trial cannot legally be extended beyond Friday.
The spokesman said the case could proceed without him or “for special reasons that need to be recorded so that the vice president can appear later”, citing rules of trial procedure.
Two-thirds of the 67 senators must remove him.
He faces 11 charges, including corruption, inciting ethnic divisions and undermining the government.
The vice president pleaded not guilty to each charge read out to the House of Representatives on Wednesday as the trial began.
An overwhelming majority of members of the National Assembly voted last week to approve his impeachment, setting the stage for a Senate trial.
He fell out with President William Ruto two years after they were elected president together.
The row came to a head in June when Gachagua accused the intelligence chief of failing to properly brief Ruto and the government about massive protests against unpopular tax increases, a move seen as undermining the president. power.
Mr Ruto has just been forced to withdraw taxes, a huge blow to his authority. He dissolved the cabinet and introduced opposition members into the government.
Mwengi Mutuse, the lawmaker who proposed the motion, appeared as a witness in the Senate on Wednesday and accused Gachagua of violating the constitution while various reasons for his motion were passed in the House of Representatives.
He described the accusations against the vice president as “extraordinary” misconduct worthy of impeachment. He cited Gachagua’s remarks as an example, saying the government was like a joint stock company, implying that only those who voted for the government would benefit in development and services.
He also accused the vice president of obtaining huge wealth through corrupt transactions.
The lawmaker then took on the task during cross-examination and at times seemed to struggle to defend his evidence.
The Senate played a clip of President Ruto speaking at a rally, calling the residents of Muranga in central Kenya the “major shareholders” of the government.
Gachagua’s lawyer asked Mutuse how the vice president could be accused of “assisting” the president.
The congressman was also asked to justify the valuation basis for the vice president’s alleged wealth.
He is accused of acquiring assets worth 5.2 billion Kenyan shillings ($40 million; £31 million) within two years of becoming deputy president, allegedly obtained through corrupt means.
He said most of the property in question came from his late brother’s estate.
During the trial, one of Gachagua’s lawyers, Elisha Ongoya, said all the accusations against the vice president “are either false, ridiculous or embarrassing.”
A second witness, Andrew Mulwa, the former chief executive of the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency, faced serious questioning after he alleged he was intimidated by a phone call from the vice president demanding he return documents for a mosquito net tender that the president had canceled. .
“This is the first time I have received a call from a sitting vice president requesting documents under an ongoing investigation. Mr. Speaker, in my 15 years of public service, I have never been asked to do this,” he said.
Gachagua denies the accusation as “ridiculous and baseless”, with his legal team pointing out that it occurred while proceedings were already completed and arguing that no money was lost
A third witness, Abdi Mohamud, deputy chief executive of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, gave evidence on conflict of interest allegations related to the matter and allegations that the deputy president received cattle gifts from companies.
The trial was scheduled to continue, with the vice president spending the remainder of the day defending himself.
At the end of the process, senators debate the motion and then vote.
The vice president is a wealthy businessman from the vote-rich mountains of central Kenya.
He went from being a first-time member of parliament to the No. 2 figure in Kenya’s leadership in just five years after Ruto chose him as his running mate in the August 2022 elections.
His impeachment trial has dominated discussion among many Kenyans and the media in recent weeks.
Many observers expected his impeachment to pass if opposition members supported the ruling coalition, as they did in the National Assembly.
If the decision is passed, Gachagua is expected to challenge it.
Kenyan media have reported on his possible successors, naming current governors Irungu Kang’ata and Anne Waiguru (both from central Kenya) as well as ministers Kisur Kindiki (home affairs) and Mu Saliya Mudavadi (Secretary, Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister’s Cabinet).
