(Bloomberg) -- Kenyan President William Ruto’s nomination of Interior Secretary Kithure Kindiki as his deputy was approved by the National Assembly, consolidating his grip on power.
The law professor succeeds Rigathi Gachagua, whom parliament impeached after he was accused of inciting ethnic hatred and undermining the judiciary. Gachagua has denied any wrongdoing and vowed to fight his removal in court.
Kindiki’s appointment was unanimously backed by 236 lawmakers who attended a special sitting in Nairobi on Friday.
The shakeup comes in the wake of anti-government protests that were staged against planned tax increases and sparked clashes that claimed at least 60 lives. Ruto subsequently fired his cabinet and then brought several opposition members into his administration in the face of objections from Gachagua and other members of the ruling alliance.
While Gachagua helped Ruto draw votes from his fellow Kikuyu, the nation’s largest ethnic group, when they contested 2022 elections on a joint ticket, the two were never close allies and his impeachment may be used to scapegoat him for this year’s unrest. Kindiki’s appointment will help stabilize the government, and enable Ruto to focus on implementing economic reforms needed to fix the government’s finances.
The East African nation is at high risk of debt distress and been plagued by corruption. A decision to backtrack on some of the new taxes has left a $2.7 billion hole in the budget, forcing the Treasury to trim spending and increase borrowing.
A former senator from the Tharaka-Nithi county, Kindiki has a master’s degree in international human-rights law and democracy, and a doctorate in international law, both from the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
As deputy president, he will serve as Ruto’s principal assistant and chair a forum that brings together the nation’s 47 counties and the national government.
Kindiki is a close ally of Ruto. He served as one of the president’s lawyers when he faced war-crimes charges at the International Criminal Court stemming from ethnic violence in Kenya in 2008 that left at least 1,110 people dead. The case was eventually dropped due to a lack of evidence.
--With assistance from Eric Ombok and Ana Monteiro.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
