Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
If we can safely take it that the planned impeachment of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is a foregone conclusion, it is time to take stock of circumstances around the fall of the self-proclaimed ‘Truthful Man’.
It is not a good picture. The National Assembly is expected to debate and vote today on the transmission of the Impeachment Motion to the Senate. We will witness a parliamentary lynch mob as a cursory reading of the grounds listed for the removal of the DP reveals a naked hatchet job.
Mr Gachagua, of course, has his shortcomings, and with his bullying ways and aggressive pursuit of ethnic dominance was in large measure the author of his own downfall.
However, that should not be the rationale for charges based on outright lies. Most of the grounds listed in the motion given to Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse were clearly baseless and can in no way meet the evidence threshold anywhere.
But then Mr Gachagua’s offences were political, and he will be subjected to a political trial where all sorts of sensational accusations will be thrown his way. It will not help his defence that even the judge in his case, National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula, will be leading and guiding the attack dogs without any pretence of being a neutral arbiter.
Save his skin
The DP might reckon he will have a better chance at the Senate where he only needs to win over one-third, 17 out of 47, of the Members to save his skin. But if the arsenal amassed by President William Ruto to drive the ouster of his deputy is anything to go by, Mr Gachagua’s prospects range from slim to none.
The DP’s supporters might have been encouraged by the turn of events at the public participation fora.
In many parts of the country, the mood was that Dr Ruto must exit alongside Mr Gachagua as the national malaise could not be pinned on the number two alone. The message was that the buck stops with the President.
However, we can expect to see today that public participation was conducted just to tick the boxes rather than provide any meaningful outcome.
The exercise included ‘ballot papers’ to indicate whether one is for or against impeachment, but with Mr Wetang’ula counting the votes, the outcome is a forgone conclusion.
Also, Parliament has no capacity to weed out fake votes from genuine ones. Pre-marked papers with fake names, identity card numbers and signatures will carry the day. In any case, it was pro-forma exercise as the law does not envisage the public overturning a parliamentary vote.
Mr Gachagua will more likely than not be sent packing, giving President Ruto room to select another patsy as his deputy.
Who succeeds Gachagua as DP is important in terms of what skills, expertise and political weight he or she brings to the table.
Presidential succession
The DP is presumed ahead of the pack in presidential succession, so we can expect the new appointment to occasion a fair bit of jockeying within the governing alliance as leaders of various ethnic and regional blocs compete to position themselves in anticipation of President Ruto’s eventual exit.
There are things that should concern us more, however, than individuals scrambling for power.
In the run-up to Gachagua’s impeachment, we witnessed worrying weaponisation of the governance, justice, law and order institutions.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations under Mohammed Amin and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions under Renson Ingonga reduced themselves to willing tools of the political establishment.
Even more worrying, the National Intelligence Service under another Ruto appointee, Noordin Haji, seems to have ditched the laudable reforms that transformed it from the old Kenya Police Special Branch into a professional intelligence gathering and analysis outfit. It has gone back to its dark old ways of political enforcement roles and outright abuse of power.
We have witnessed a reign of terror since the government cracked down on citizens exercising constitutional rights to call the system to account. This administration is keen to outdo the one-party dictatorship in abductions, murders, enforced disappearances, illegal confinements, torture and other outrages against the people.
The regime has also forcefully played on the politics of ethnicity to entrench its position, to the effect that genuine concerns raised by the GenZ protests against punitive taxation, high-level corruption, human rights abuses and so on have been countered by ethnic mobilisation.
Unless this regressive trend is halted, things will get worse before they get better. Never must we celebrate the return to dictatorial ways to tame our foes, for sooner or later those same weapons will be turned against us.
[email protected]; @MachariaGaitho
