President William Ruto has praised his deputy, Kithure Kindiki, as someone who understands government and is helping him to move the country forward.

Speaking at Meru National Park during the Human-Wildlife Conflict Compensation funds launch on Monday, May 26, 2025, Ruto revealed that Kindiki supports the cabinet and the presidency in implementing the government agenda.

 “I want to thank the people of Meru for giving me this gentleman (Kithure Kindiki). Let me tell you, I now have a deputy president. He is helping me to move Kenya forward,” he boasted.

“I am very proud I have a deputy who understands government, agriculture, infrastructure, education and health, and he is supportive of the ministers and me to make sure Kenya is going forward,” he added.

Throwing a jibe at his former deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, whom he described as quick to anger on his impeachment in October 2024, Ruto stated that Kindiki is slow to anger and is not tribal.

“He does not harbour hatred, anger and tribalism and understands that the deputy president is not for the people of Mery but for the Republic of Kenya,” he said.

“Those people with anger, hatred and tribalism will never get anywhere in Kenya because Kenya does not belong to those kinds of people but to the united, prosperous one nation with a common destiny,” he added.

Gachagua’s impeachment

The Senate voted to impeach Gachagua on five charges out of a total of 11 against him, following two days of hearings on October 17, 2024.

He is the first deputy president to be removed in this manner since impeachment was introduced in Kenya’s revised 2010 constitution.

The Senate session had plunged into disarray after Gachagua was admitted to the hospital with severe chest pains and failed to testify in his defence.

The 11 charges, which Gachagua had vigorously denied, included corruption, insubordination, money laundering, undermining the government, practising ethnically divisive politics, bullying public officers and threatening a judge.

The Senate proceeded with the vote despite Gachagua’s absence from proceedings as a result of illness.

He was due to defend himself against the allegations, which he denies, after allies of President Ruto said he was disloyal.

But after Gachagua failed to appear, his lawyer, Paul Muite, said the deputy president had been hospitalised with intense chest pains, urging the Senate to pause proceedings for a couple of days.

“The sad reality is that the deputy president of the Republic of Kenya has been taken sick, very sick,” Muite said.

Speaker Amason Kingi put forward a motion to adjourn the hearing until October 19, 2024, but senators voted against the move.

“The nays have it,” Kingi declared.