By James Wafula in Nairobi
At least two people in Kenya’s
corridors of power may be
losing sleep over a possible
political truce between President
William Ruto and Azimio opposition
leader Raila Odinga. They are tough
talking Deputy President Rigathi
Gachagua (aka RG) and the Urban
Cabinet Prime S.ecretary Musalia
Mudavadi.
Already the fate of Mudavadi
appears to be on the line after his
appointment was challenged in court
as unconstitutional.
This had prompted a frenzy of
motions by Kenya Kwanza MPs
trying to amend the constitution to
accommodate the Luhya kingpin
detractors claim, was handed a “big
empty cartoon”!
For Gachagua holding what many
have come to believe is Kenya’s “most
thankless office” the fear is real and
palpable. This has been demonstrated
by the DP accompanying the
president at every rally in his mount
Kenya stronghold. The DP has kept
re-assuring cheering crowds there
will be no handshake like that of
President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila
Odinga March 9, 2018. Thus sending
a coded message to his boss.
Gachagua is well aware of the
“thankless” nature of Kenya politics
as he saw Kenyatta reduce Ruto’s
office to an empty shell from 2018 as
he embraced Odinga.
Kenyatta, Odinga and his cohorts
would inspect national projects while
the number two cooled heels at his
Karen resident sulking and seething.
But the thankless nature of Kenya’s
Why Kenya’s Deputy President is
scared of Ruto-Raila deal
number two office held by 8 men since
independence from colonial Britain in
1963 did not start with Ruto.
The testimony of the VP being
an unstable office can be discerned
by the occupants- nine against five
presidents.
The trouble with the office of second
in command started way back with the
father of Raila who was the country’s
first vice president. Jaramogi Oginga
Odinga served under Uhuru’s father
the first President Jomo Kenyatta.
Despite the two men enjoying
cordial ties as they replaced the
colonial government, their union fell
apart barely three years in power! A
furious Jaramogi accused Kenyatta
of using then powerful Economics
minister and KANU Secretary
General, fellow Luo Tom Joseph
Mboya.to undermine him.
Mboya at the behest of Kenyatta
had sort to introduce a motion in
parliament that would have made
the vice presidency a rotational and
regional office with most of its powers
clipped.
A furious Jaramogi seeing this as
the ultimate betrayal for supporting
Kenyatta resigned in a huff. He
formed an opposition party Kenya
Peoples Union (KPU) that would later
become a thorn in the flesh of ruling
party KANU. Jaramogi would later
appear to mock Mboya when he was
shot dead outside a Nairobi chemist
July 1969 in broad daylight.
During the funeral of Mboya,
Odinga dressed in traditional Luo
regalia kept circling Mboya’s corpse
with a fly whisk taunting “I tried to
warn you but you refused to listen in
dholuo).
Jaramogi was replaced by a soft
spoken Embu politician Karumba
who did not go beyond one year.
Kenyatta then appointed Mr. Daniel Moi a teacher from Sacho in Baringo
in 1969.
Moi is said to have endured all
manner of frustrations from the
Kiambu Kikuyu mafia led by Mbiyu
Koinange and Charles Njonjo who
kept taunting him that he was a
“passing cloud” that would never
make it to state house.
He proved them wrong when
upon the death of Kenyatta in his
sleep August 20 1978, Daniel Moi
mistakenly assumed to be a political
greenhorn assumed the top office
while appointing former Makerere
university Economic lecturer Mwai
Kibaki his deputy.
Moi would later grow in stature and
political clout as to outfox the Kiambu
mafia that had regarded him a
“passing cloud” hounding Njonjo out
of parliament as the “traitor” behind
the failed 1982 August 1 Kenya Airforce coup de tat.
After the attempted coup, a tough
talking Moi prevailed on parliament
to declare Kenya a one party state.
This proscribed Jaramogi’s KPU as
illegal! The emboldened president
then went for the jugular of his
political enemies.
Moi would in several years torment
his number two Kibaki at one time
linking him to a Kenya Airforce cadet
who was among the rebels involved
in the coup attempt. According to
Moi, Kibaki must have known about
it and so for his trouble demoted
him in 1988 appointing him health
minister.
Moi would then appoint Mathare
MP academician Professor Josephat
Karanja in 1989. The VP whose
marriage to a Muganda lady later
became an issue of “political thuggery”
as a clique of KANU “hit-men” claimed
the VP was asking ministers to kneel
down before him like his wife! He
was then also accused of declaring to
be “acting president” when Moi was
abroad! This in Moi’s one party Kenya
state days was seen as treason!
Moi who ruled Kenya longest 24
years, part of it with an iron hand
detaining and torturing his critics
without trial, kicked out Karanja
who was forced to resign by MP’s
impeachment motion. Moi had sent
the “wolves” to hound out Karanja
whom he felt had become too big for
his boots. Then a horrified Karanja
also trained in Makerere university,
dismissed the whole scheme as
nothing short of political thuggery!
He claimed common decency and
decorum had been thrown out of the
window by Moi’s political goons!
University of Nairobi mathematics
Professor George Saitoti a Kikuyu
with Maasai roots and Moi seemed
to be comfortable with his deputy for
almost 11 years.
But come 2001 as he prepared to step
down according to a new constitution,
Moi claimed while Saitoti was a
“good friend” he could not be trusted
with power! Saitoti would later die in
a mysterious helicopter crush in 2011
as he prepared to run for the 2012
presidential elections.
Ironically Moi remarks on Saitoti
was the same language President
Uhuru used on his deputy William
Ruto ahead of the 2022 transition
elections. Uhuru camped at Sagana
state lodge and spoke in Kikuyu
rooting for Raila as his preferred
successor.
He kept claiming his
deputy was the wrong man for the
presidency.
For Saitoti seating on a political
podium and then being dressed down
was probably the most humiliating
moment for the stone faced scientist.
Moi chose the greenhorn Uhuru
Kenyatta declaring him his preferred
heir kicking up a storm that imploded
reducing the ruling party to half.
Kibaki had long since resigned
from KANU and formed DP once
parliament cleared the way for multiparty elections in 1992.
Saitoti frustrations deepened in
2001 when Moi teamed with Raila
Odinga who became energy minister
and KANU Secretary General!
The VP post remained vacant for 11 months
before later Saitoti being recalled by
a sarcastic Moi wondering if it will
increase sufurias in some peoples
houses.
Moi kept those angling to succeed
him in endless guess games before
settling on Uhuru kicking up a storm
that saw Odinga make an about turn
and team with Saitoti and Kibaki to
form a formidable coalition.
While the Odinga-Saitoti backed
Kibaki defeated Uhuru in the 2002
elections, the number two position
taken by Kijana Wamalwa became
vacant when he died in office barely
two years after the elections. Moody
Awori the elder brother of former
Ugandan MP the late Aggrey Awori
would then hold the office from 2004
but vacate in the 2007 having almost
been hounded out over a multi-billion
shilling Anglo Leasing scandal. He
lost his Funyula seat in the 2007
election to a greenhorn fronted by
Raila’s ODM.
Kenyan opposition leaders during the 2017 election campaigns before their split
With the current political stalemate
persisting many watchers are
predicting a deal of sorts will have to
be hammered out. This at least from
history is the only way perennial
political disputes have been resolved.
That is if hardliners dont carry the
day. This makes the heads that wear
the crown as William Shakespeare
would put it, most uneasy! A power
sharing deal would of course have to
factor in the 2027 re-election strategy
and at the end of the day it is the
numbers expected on voting day ■
