Gachagua ouster scheme fraught with risks

The plot to impeach Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has brewed a national political storm while raising fundamental constitutional questions.

It is now clear that the acrimonious falling-out between the DP and President William Ruto has reached the tipping point, despite belated attempts to involve the public in the implosion.

The well-orchestrated bid to oust Gachagua has been enabled by realignments in the political system emanating from the recent popular Gen Z protests.

Following the rapprochement between Ruto and his erstwhile rival in the disputed 2022 presidential election, Opposition leader Raila Odinga, that saw his key allies given plum positions in the Cabinet, signs indicated Gachagus was a marked man.

Sensing danger amid a war of words with legislators from his Mt Kenya stronghold led by National Assembly Leader of Majority Kimani Ichung’wah, Gachagua retreated to the ground.

He mounted a spirited fightback laced with conciliatory gestures to his political enemies including former President Uhuru Kenyatta.

He claims to have been instrumental in securing victory for Ruto by mobilising Mt Kenya voters behind him against the wishes of Kenyatta, who backed Raila.

After the contested election, Gachagua continued his diatribe against them with a series of public and covert attacks.

Kenya’s volatile politics never ceases to amaze. The DP will now rue his actions, regretting some of the unpalatable utterances he made that have led to the impeachment motion against him hatched in Parliament.

With his confidants deeply entrenched in government, Raila has not forgotten the haranguing he got from Gachagua.

The fatal political mistake the DP made was to term the nation-state a shareholders’ enterprise belonging to the Mt Kenya and Rift Valley regions and their ethnic communities.

While that statement may have endeared him to his Mt Kenya stronghold, where he has run to in a bid to save his imploding political career, it has also come to haunt him, further alienating him from his opponents and supporters from other regions.

In the National Assembly dominated by Ruto and Gachagua’s UDA and Raila’s ODM, an overwhelming 291 MPs voted in favour of the impeachment motion.

This means in literary parlance that Gachagua’s goose is cooked. There is virtually no way he will survive in Parliament.  His fate has been sealed by the constitutional provision separating the powers of the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.

Public participation now sits at the heart of the Constitution as a national value. In promoting transparency, accountability and efficiency service delivery in the management of public funds and resources.

This critical human activity has in Kenya been the preserve of the political class characterised by corruption, treachery and deceit. The people have been treated by the ruling class as pawns on a political chessboard.

The Constitution has, however, broadened the scope of political players to include the public. Scheming political elites may have inadvertently opened a Pandora’s box by inviting the public to discuss Gachagua’s impending ouster.

In their submissions, the majority of the people opposed the impeachment and, in a backlash, gave a sharp indictment of the government, its glaring failures, lack of accountability and the vulnerabilities of political leadership.

They were adamant that if the DP is to be impeached, then they “must go” together with the President, as both were elected on the same ticket.

— The writer comments on political affairs; albertoleny@gmail.com