It is now real that the difference between President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua is irreconcilable.
More than two-thirds, 281 members of parliament (MPs) out of 349 on October 8 voted to impeach Gachague in one of the most significant applications of the Kenyan 2010 on the political front. 44 MPs voted against the impeachment.
However, there is still a long way to go as the issue has to go to the Senate, where if it passes Gachagua still has wide leeway to go to the courts which could mean three stages of litigation ending in the Supreme Court.
Gachagua defended himself effectively in parliament, but it appeared that his boss had decided that he had to go. He is not willing to resign and has decided to exhaust all political and legal mechanisms.
The previously simmering differences between President Ruto and his deputy came to a head in June and July when generation Zoomers, commonly known as Gen-Z staged popular street demonstrations to get rid of the Kenya Kwanza government over corruption, none-delivery and widespread unemployment
Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse’s impeachment motion tabled on October 1 has 11 counts.
They include; insubordination; corruptly and unlawfully acquiring assets using taxpayers’ money; disobeying the deputy president’s oath of office by singling out certain members of the judiciary for criticism; and openly opposing the president’s policy positions and Cabinet directives, which amounts to insubordination.
The Gachagua impeachment has generated issues ranging from disruption of the harmony within the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA), the diversion from the challenges facing Kenyans to the possible beginning of serious ethnic divisions in the country.
President Ruto is not sitting pretty, because he is being accused of betraying his deputy who contributed substantial votes in their August 2022 victory.
Gachagua has defended himself saying that whatever he is being accused of are the same things his boss did while he was deputy of former president, Uhuru Kenyatta.
“I will fight to the end,” he told a press conference on the eve of the impeachment proceedings. Declaring his innocence, Gachagua provided a thorough refutation of the accusations, which included encouraging “ethnic balkanization” and accumulating a sizable, unexplained real estate portfolio.
But Ruto has to deal with the perception that he is taking advantage of the 2010 constitution which was not used against him when he rebelled against Kenyatta for five years as deputy president.
Ruto has to deal with the widespread perception that he is taking Kenya back to the days of the late Daniel arap Moi of the one-man show.
He has emasculated parliament, the Senate, the judiciary and the Cabinet—where members cannot explain key policies that they preside over. Tuto faces the test of picking a new deputy that would be accepted across the board, with many Kenyans preferring a woman.
Kenyans are now waiting for the Senate—which most Kenyans consider rather sober—but which is not immune to Ruto’s wide tentacles.
Kenyans are watching whether the Kenyan constitution will be capable of withstanding political manipulation hath has seen the country suffer for 61 years since independence in 1963.
