A lawyer representing Kenya's Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in his impeachment hearing told the Senate on Thursday that the politician was "very sick" and in hospital, after he failed to attend proceedings.

The senate in Kenya has briefly adjourned an impeachment hearing for the deputy president after he was hospitalized over an illness, according to his lawyers.

Kenya's Senate is set to vote on whether to remove Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua from office at the end of the second day of his impeachment trial. The deputy president is on Thursday defending himself before the lawmakers in the upper house of parliament, two-thirds of whom are required to oust him.