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The Nairobian

Gachagua's tribulations can be traced back to the Constitution

Michael Ndonye

By Michael Ndonye | Oct 18, 2024

**Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and his son Dr Keith Gachagua arrive at Parliament Buildings, Nairobi, for day two of Senate impeachment trial on October 17, 2024** [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Politically speaking, a deputy president should not be seen acting as ‘president in waiting’ or ‘an alternative president’. They must be presidential material but ‘paying all tribute’ to the head of state.

The first DP, Dr William Ruto, exposed some weaknesses in the presidency as encapsulated in our Constitution. Being over ambitious and wanting to be President, he had a chance to define, to other DPs, the "how" to deputise. More importantly, he defined, knowingly or unconsciously, the "when" a deputy president should stick his head out.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, on his side, defined ‘how’ to deal with an ambitious deputy. He organically discovered how to use external opposition to neutralise internal opposition. His eureka moment was that an enemy can be more loyal than a friend—a concept well defined by Robert Greene in his book, The 48 Laws of Power.

That said, the Constitution created the problem that we have in the Presidency. Drafters of the Constitution erred when they contemplated a DP elected alongside the President. Methinks the provision, with implications now and in the future, arose out of political emotions because of three reasons.

First, the DP, as in the Constitution, will always be qualified based on political convenience. In forming alliances, political oligarchs will always reward the first and second seats for convenience instead of compatibility and ideology. That was how the UhuRuto duo came into power in 2013.

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Second, any presidential candidate will always consider someone's political constituency when choosing a deputy. Above all other factors, a deputy will be like a coalition partner—exemplified by the Ruto-Gachagua presidency. Therefore, the presidency will result from political pacts and pre-election deals, which, when broken, will always force us to shelve urgent matters to seek order within the presidency.

This way, the head of state will either choose to be manipulated or snub unrealistic demands and expectations of his deputy. And since the deputy will be politically ambitious, he will sometimes feel equal to the President.

Third, the Constitution organically infused an 'insider opposition' in the structure of the presidency. Crafted at the time of the coalition government, the Committee of Experts must have been crowded by the disputes between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga.

Since the prime minister's office was also part of the process, they supposedly considered empowering and protecting the second-in-command from the President, whom out of past experiences, they hated to give absolute powers. After the inauguration of the 2010 Constitution, the responsive commendation was that it unveiled a 'constitutionally emasculated' head of state. It was a bad idea!

In so doing, the Constitution emotively fashioned a second-in-command who is, potentially, a political manipulator and sees themselves equal to the President—since they are elected jointly as embodied in the campaign posters and the ballot papers.

It is why Uhuru and now Ruto find it easy to work with 'outsider opposition' to tumble the ‘internal opposition’. See, the enemy inside is more dangerous than the enemy outside.

If we are to focus on the development agenda immediately after the general elections, we must accept some bitter truths about the nature of a deputy president.

First, they should not be elected alongside the President. The President should appoint the DP—this way, the deputy will give all ‘glory’ to his boss. They should be seen honouring and paying tribute to the President because he is not there to check the government but to support it.

Second, a DP should have no ambitions of becoming President. If Mwai Kibaki’s preference for Moody Awori is already clichéd, we cite Tanzania's President John Magufuli's Vice President Samia Suluhu, whom we never knew Until Magufuli died. All deputy presidents should be baptised into the order of Suluhu. Period!

Our deputy presidents, courtesy of the Constitution, are everywhere, defying protocol and usurping the honour reserved for the head of state. It is wrong!

Dr Ndonye is a senior lecturer at Kabarak University’s Department of Mass Communication