Throw away the 'rotten egg' that is Gachagua's impeachment bid

Friends of Kenya and Kenyans of goodwill should treat the calls to impeach DP Gachagua with the contempt of a rotten egg.

It’s a carefully staged red-herring intended to erode public vigilance on policy issues.

Among the real issues now are the new university funding model, the infamous Adani deal and the general government’s low score two years down the road.

Well, diversion is now sold as the silver bullet fired to kill bad governance. But again, we are reeling in a much bigger problem.

Far worse than politicians who pander to every wave, are the public intellectuals whose mouths are in their stomachs.

As such, no one is surprised when celebrated public intellectuals throw their weight behind the mooted impeachment. They are the fresh threats to our national renaissance.

To avoid doubt, we must remember that the deputy president was selected as a running mate in large part due to his capacity for ethnic vitriol.

As he spewed unfiltered words, he cast some leaders as nothing more than the devil reborn. To him, then as now, alternative view must be feared or despised by all Mount Kenya voters.

He was picked not because he stood for any higher ideals than the current CS for Interior. He landed his seat through judo tactics still subject to debate.

It’s not lost on us how he subjected President Uhuru Kenyatta to public ridicule using adjectives beyond expression here nor deserving space anywhere half this column.

Just after a hotly contested election, he re-emerged as the face of Kenya Kwanza ethnic exceptionalism.

For that crown, he proudly pronounced that the government was a shareholding company. And that areas that voted Kenya Kwanza should be given preferential – if not exclusive, treatment at the expense of other Kenyans.

Those who grew up when security agencies were the symbol of State brutality know what it means to say “askari ni askari tu”. Exactly what a senior advocate said when we got to exchange perspectives on the shareholding narrative at the time.

But for all his real and imagined mistakes, many believe that it would be a waste of time, energy and intellect to argue for or against the DP’s removal.

The fallout in Kenya Kwanza is not because either side loves Kenyans more. Remember this: When Kenyans protested a fraudulent presidential election, they were labelled ‘militias’, by someone high up the Kenya Kwanza hierarchy. A case of the same old, same old...

Honestly, after the people indicted Parliament during the anti-Finance Bill protests, we expected to see a dedicated effort to interrogate why the rush for SHIF yet the human resource element is in a mess.

Consider the benefits that it promises civil servants. A joke for a cover. You might imagine it’s a crime to be a civil servant in this country. It appears that turning the poor, poorer or making the middle-class poor is the real policy of this regime.

In moments of political crisis like this, we expect higher commitment to service delivery, not a desire to create martyrs.

We all remember that William Ruto was a nobody in the pecking order of Rift Valley politics until the ODM expelled him.

The belief then was that a constituency stood ready to enter the door as soon as the Eldoret North MP and his troops left. The belief turned false.

The result was that Ruto eclipsed his superiors like Henry Kosgey and Franklin Bett to become the giant he is today.

Secondly, nobody took seriously Raila Odinga’s presidential candidature until Kibaki sacked him following the 2005 referendum. He not only floored Kibaki in the subsequent poll, but he ultimately also solidified his position in Kenya’s politics.

If Kenya Kwanza wants to engage in political shadowboxing, it will be their loss. But it’s the counsel of this column that, more than ever, it rededicates itself to humane and sensitive policy interventions.

In the words of Haruki Murakami in his book Men Without Women: “Working on little things as dutifully and as honestly is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart”.

For that, throw away the rotten egg called ‘Gachagua impeachment’!

Mr Mwaga is the convener of Inter-parties Youth Forum.