A Kenyan court has suspended the replacement of Rigathi Gachagua as deputy president following his impeachment by parliament over allegations of corruption and ethnic division.
President William Ruto on Friday nominated the country's Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki as his new deputy, hours after Gachagua was impeached while he was in the hospital.
National Assembly speaker Moses Wetangula on Friday announced Ruto's choice of Kindiki, asking parliamentarians to move ahead with the vote to confirm the appointment.
But the court order, issued moments after lawmakers in the lower house had voted in favour of the interior minister's nomination, suspended the appointment.
Substantial questions
The judge said the petition by Gachagua challenging his replacement as deputy president raised substantial questions of law and public interest, the Daily Nation news website reports.
Kindiki has served as interior minister in Ruto's government for more than two years, but came under fire over alleged police brutality during the sometimes deadly anti-government protests that rocked Kenya earlier this year.
The upper house Senate had pushed ahead with Gachagua's impeachment on Thursday - finding him guilty of five of the 11 charges against him - despite the absence of the 59-year-old.
Historic impeachment
He is the first deputy president to be impeached since the process was introduced in Kenya's revised 2010 constitution.
Gachagua failed to testify in his defence after being rushed to hospital in a Nairobi suburb, plunging the session into disarray.
The Senate rejected an appeal by Gachagua's legal team to delay the hearings, prompting the lawyers to walk out in protest.
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