Enduring lessons for leaders from Gachagua woes

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua during impeachment hearing in the National Assembly on October 8, 2024. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Louis Farrakhan, the African-American religious leader and a consistent voice of black dignity, makes a profound statement that would be most apt for Kenya’s political moment.

“When you see great men fall, don’t laugh. Learn! Because you are on your way up and the things that tempted people to fall you and I are not free from (that temptation) nor from the weakness that would cause us to stumble and fall”.

This lesson couldn’t be timelier, especially as we witness Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s woes as he faces the guillotine. Regardless of whether you’re for or against him, there is much learning.

Two years ago, Rigathi embarrassed former President Kenyatta at the swearing-in ceremony, berating him right in front of Uhuru’s colleagues - presidents who had served with him honourably as peers. The newly sworn-in Mr Gachagua waxed lyrical, abandoning the principle that you don’t kick a man already down.

It was an unnecessary attack and affront on a man who had obeyed the popular will, the Judiciary, and handed over power at our most complex political time. I have not even reminded you how DP Gachagua humiliated former Prime Minister Raila Odinga at the funeral of Mau Mau hero Brigadier Kiboko in Nyandarua, telling him, ‘pigeni kelele kwa maandamano, jioni mrudi nyumbani.’ In that meeting, he even told Mr Odinga, ‘Your experience in Kamiti may be useful’.

Fast forward, the DP today finds himself marooned and facing what he believes is an unfair attack on him. To save his skin, he has had to bandy the name of Mr Kenyatta here and there, citing Kenyatta as the leader of the mountain and forgetting in his next sentence and declaring himself the leader of the mountain. 

Then the DP said he had apologised to the former President, knowing only too well that no one can confirm that. As Mr Kenyatta’s Personal Secretary, Mr Kenyatta had entrusted Mr Gachagua with personal secrets and sent him on all manner of errands, including sensitive and personal ones.

I know the journey of friendship has instances of small and gross disagreements. However, at the very least, learn that when you find yourself up against someone who has trusted you before, find the place of decency in your divergence.

I have been here long enough to know that it all comes around somehow. Learn that your words and actions catch up eventually. Power and crowds are particularly notorious for making people say the silliest things and behave in the most foolish ways without any sense of measuredness. But when the two leave, tough speakers tend to seek caves to hide in.

Please learn from this season in our politics that things change. And they do so viscously and swiftly sometimes. Support whomever you choose, do your politics whichever way you please, but remain decent when handling even your worst ‘enemy’. It is a lesson that even the young ones rising up the leadership ladder and tasked with nastiness on both sides of the political divide must take home. That power is transient and our worst enemies today will be our saviours tomorrow. Broad-based rings a bell?

And to all those who seek and get power and think they are invincible, learn! Kenya’s Total Man left the stage, the all-powerful Hezekiah Oyugi left the stage. Elsewhere, Mussolini left the stage, Nigeria’s strongman Sani Abacha left the stage, Iddi Amin left the stage and Adolf Hitler left the stage.

However, powerful one may be today, learn that an exit awaits. Will you look back with pride when you leave? Or will your exit be punctuated by cheers of mockery from your subjects? Will your children fit in society proudly or will you take off with them to another country never to return? Please learn!

Go back to the words of Mahatma Gandhi. I find them sobering. “There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but IN THE END, they ALWAYS FALL - think of it, always.”

-The writer is a former Trade CAS