# Kenya parliament backs Kindiki as deputy president after Gachagua impeachment
On the event date, 2024-10-18, Kenya entered a new phase of political turbulence when President William Ruto nominated Interior Secretary Kithure Kindiki to become deputy president after lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to remove Rigathi Gachagua from office.
The AP report said the National Assembly approved Kindiki by 236 votes to zero, a result that left little doubt about the balance of power in parliament on that day. The decision followed an impeachment motion against Gachagua over allegations of corruption and inciting ethnic division. Gachagua was in hospital when legislators acted, and the article said he remained hospitalized with chest pains described by his lawyer as stress-related.
The speed of the move mattered as much as the vote itself. According to AP, the High Court later issued an order halting Gachagua's replacement until cases challenging the impeachment could be heard. That meant Kindiki's approval did not immediately translate into a change at the top of the executive, even though the National Assembly speaker issued a gazette notice on the vote.
AP described Kindiki as a former front-runner for the deputy president role during the 2022 election campaign and noted that he, like Gachagua, comes from the vote-rich Mount Kenya region. That regional detail helps explain why the appointment was politically significant beyond the immediate legal dispute. It also suggested that Ruto was trying to preserve some balance in his coalition even as he parted ways with his deputy.
The impeachment itself exposed deep rifts inside the ruling bloc. Gachagua's allies criticized the process as rushed, and AP reported that senators had rejected requests to delay proceedings so he could recover and appear before the chamber. Gachagua had also argued during his defense that the motion appeared to have the president's backing and urged lawmakers to decide without intimidation.
Ruto, for his part, had not commented publicly on the impeachment at the time of the AP report. Still, the wider context was clear: the president had faced public anger over tax increases and had already begun adjusting his Cabinet and retreating from some proposals. The fallout around Gachagua showed how economic pressure, coalition politics and regional loyalties were converging inside the Kenyan government.
Kindiki now awaited swearing-in once the court process allowed the replacement to proceed. The AP story made clear that the nomination, the parliamentary vote and the judicial pause were all happening in rapid succession, making the day one of the most consequential institutional tests of Ruto's presidency so far.
For Kenya, the immediate question was not just who would occupy the deputy presidency, but how the courts would interpret the parliamentary impeachment process and whether the ruling coalition could hold together while that fight played out.
