Kithure Kindiki has been sworn in as Kenya’s new deputy president, after senators ousted Rigathi Gachagua in a dramatic series of impeachment votes a fortnight ago.
A legal attempt by Gachagua to delay the swearing-in ceremony failed on Thursday.
Kindiki, a 52-year-old former law professor, has been serving as President William Ruto’s interior minister for the last two years.
The president hopes that Kindiki’s accession will put to an end a febrile chapter in Kenya’s political history.
In his speech, Kindiki termed his predecessor’s impeachment a “testament to the maturity of our democracy and a testament that our institutions work”.
“I will be loyal and faithful to you,” Kindiki pledged to Ruto.
Ruto has appointed Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi as the acting interior minister.
The softly spoken Kindiki was the face of the government in the aftermath of the police’s deadly crackdown on recent anti-tax protests.
In charge of the security services, he oversaw the response to the wave of protests that began in June.
More than 40 people died in clashes with the police and at least 300 others were wounded, but Kindiki lauded the officers for exercising “restraint” while enforcing law and order. He also denied any shoot-to-kill orders were issued.
His stance was met by public anger, with rights groups demanding justice for victims as well as individuals abducted under mysterious circumstances.
In his response to the demonstrations, Kindiki burnished his credentials as a supporter of the president and survived a cull of ministers.
This was not a surprise as he had long been a close ally of the president, having served as his lawyer more than a decade ago during a case before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Ruto, then an MP, had been accused of crimes against humanity over the violence that followed the 2007 election in which more than 1,200 people died.
The case was eventually dropped because of insufficient evidence, but prosecutors argued that witnesses had been intimidated.
Kindiki is, like Gachagua, from the Mount Kenya region and will be able to shore up the president’s support in that area in the wake of the impeachment.
Always smartly dressed with a neat close-cropped haircut, the father-of-two honed his deliberative style of speaking in the courts, but he also worked in academia.
With a master’s degree and a PhD from the University of Pretoria in South Africa, he has authored more than 30 publications – including books and articles in academic peer-reviewed journals, both locally and internationally.
He has vast experience in public policy, governance, public administration, law-making, constitutional affairs and giving legal advice at various levels.
He began his political career in March 2013 when he was elected senator for Tharaka-Nithi county and served as the Senate majority leader for five years.
Re-elected in 2017, he went on to serve as the chamber’s deputy speaker until 2020 when he was sacked in a purge of Ruto’s allies.
When Ruto won the 2022 presidential election, he appointed Kindiki to his first cabinet.
Since then, he has represented the authorities during traumatic incidents.
Last year, hundreds of bodies of people who had starved to death were uncovered in a remote forest. It is alleged that self-styled pastor Paul Mackenzie had encouraged them to stop eating. Currently on trial, he denies the charges.
In the wake of the grim discovery of the bodies, Kindiki was on site and describing the incident as a “massacre”.
Last month, he was at a school where 17 pupils had died after a dormitory fire. The minister promised “full accountability for all whose action or inaction contributed to this tremendous loss”.
In 2022, there were some who thought Kindiki would be named as Ruto’s deputy, but Gachagua clinched the position as he brought with him considerable influence and wealth.
Ruto later said that he “missed the chance to be deputy president by a whisker”.
Kindiki is likely to prove a more loyal deputy than Gachagua and will toe the line.
