What is happening in Kenya today is indeed the making of history but most importantly a lesson for ordinary voters. It reminds me of the centre bolt of a lorry that once impaired, the lorry cannot move straight. They say when the centre cannot hold, things can get murky.[โฆ]CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLEโถ
Voters are turning out to be much more with the impending impeachment of the Deputy President, a complex matter that touches on issues of governance, legal frameworks, and power dynamics.
In fact, in as much as most critics and legal minds aver that the Constitution does not contemplate public participation in impeaching a DP, two things have called for this.
One is the expansion of our jurisprudence and emergent case laws that have made it impossible for Parliament to move anything without public participation. Two, MPs not only want to impeach Riggy G but also to humiliate him in public before impeaching him. That is if he doesnโt resign.
Well, it does seem that the political ploy to humiliate him is boomeranging on the original thinkers of this idea. Now they are dealing with a serious backlash as one MP after another is talking of listening to the ground. Suffice to note, this is turning out to be not so much about the tribulations of Riggy G, but the kind of cult of mediocrity we elected. The centre is not holding anymore and it is clear that the public reads these allegations against Riggy G as a microcosm of the entire political class. Public participation sentiments are clear, if we are to cast stones, Riggy G is not the only one.
Political processes tend to take ethnic and regional dynamics, but in this case most Kenyans who have had their chance in these public participation have been clear. Riggy G, like any political figure in Kenya, has a strong regional and ethnic backing and it does appear that some leaders from his backyard imagined that by coming out loudly against him, the mountain would sing impeachment.
Well, whereas this process is unlikely to inflame ethnic or regional tensions, it seems to have galvanised some reality check on those who thought it would be a walk in park to publicly humiliate the DP and NOT drag the entire regime into the quagmire.
It is not just Mt Kenya that is coming out to raise issues about the entire establishment, but the entire country. It does appear that in as much as the cases against the DP have been unpacked by critics as very serious, Kenyans from all walks of life are unanimous that it is unfair to single out Riggy G when an entire system allows such to happen.
Subliminally, this is becoming a referendum. Most of the MPs who initially backed the impeachment have changed their stance. The public sentiments seem to give Riggy G some new impetus to either fight or bring everyone down, possibly with a view to resigning before impeachment.
Either by design or default, Riggy G seems to galvanise support that seems to be emanating from the sympathies his tribulations attract. MPs who were shouting hoarse that the DP has to go have been hit by Wanjikuโs voice, which seems to suggest that the entire system that breeds leaders accused of such allegations, especially the corruption claims, is the one on trial here. Ethnic and regional dynamics aside, is this regime popular enough to survive the trial it is entangling itself in?
The rancour and acrimony between Riggy G and the powers that be this far would mean that staying in office would be at his own peril.
He would lose his newfound public support and the galvanized gravitas to deal with a system that came after him. If indeed the DP is everything he has been described to be by the people out to impeach him, then it will not come as a surprise if he drags the very people he perceives to be after him into the mad and leave them there to fight themselves out.
He probably will go to Parliament, spill the beans and then resign rather than get to the Senate for a trial. Where that will put him is not clear, but as Thomas Jefferson once said, โInformation is the currency of democracyโ. Hopefully, what is unfolding is giving Kenyans information that will not only be part of our history, but the beginning of a dispensation that will say no to the cult of mediocrity in our politicsโฆCLICK HERE TO READ MORE ARTICLES>>>
