The architects of the โimpeach himโ cry did not expect the legal process to sound like a โlynchโ. The rush to evict the Deputy President from his executive perch has seen public participation turn chaotic.[โฆ]CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLEโถ
The riot of raw emotions is especially loud in Nairobi, the DPโs Mt Kenya base, and Nakuru, the heart of the Kikuyu settlement in the Rift Valley. In Nyandarua, another Mt Kenya county, residents chased away officials who were sent there to facilitate public participation.
The โusiguze murimaโ call has been defied. They say the son of murima has been rejected and betrayed by his erstwhile friends. He has been betrayed by the people who promised to shield him from torment.
His owners โ watu ya murima โ want the lynch stopped: they have heard the cries of their son, coming two years after their power pact with President William Ruto was consummated.
There is rationale for the rising โstop the lynchโ movement, especially from a region that heavily voted for the Kenya Kwanza regime. The region feels their son has been betrayed.
They say the lynch may destroy the DPโs political climb. They feel it, especially because their son was a step away from the top seat, which their other scions Jomo Kenyatta, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta occupied for 34 years.
The DP, therefore, is their closest connection to the 34-year old history of entitlement. Of all vocal allies of the DP โ including current and former MPs โ it is former Molo MP Kimani Ngujiri who understands the emotional toll the torment is causing Rigathi Gachagua, and his base.
The former MPโs canine imagery offers a rich analogy of a common experience: When a dog is hit outside the home, it does the natural thing โ it rushes to the familiar ground.
โItโs the same with human beings. โฆ they donโt feel how Gachagua is feeling.โ The cry from murima has been particularly loud. They donโt want their son impeached, but if he must, then President William Ruto should accompany him.
The President and the DP arrived together, they argue, so they should leave together. e demand deviates and expands the issue at hand.
These incidents, especially the backlash from Gachaguaโs supporters, were probably considered in a situation analysis of what could go wrong with attempts to impeach the DP.
Article 150 of the Constitution was invoked as a legal pathway for the ejection of the DP. But the impeachment has spiralled into a demand to evict the President as well.
Public participation in the DPโs base, and pockets of other places, has turned into a platform to express disenchantment with the government. The timing of the eviction is inopportune.
The country faces more urgent challenges that need priority attention. The education system is in a crisis. e new university funding model has been roundly rejected as expensive, punitive and discriminative. The transition to Competency Based Curriculum is failing in real time.
About three months to a key transition point, no one is sure where Grade 9 pupils will be accommodated. Junior secondary schools are crowded, without teachers and other facilities needed for competent management of CBC.
Secondary schools will not admit Form 1 classes after the phaseout of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education last year. These schools will have idle facilities and teachers when JSSs are constrained.
University lecturers are on strike. Their students are disenchanted; parents are disillusioned with the spiralling insensitivity. The health sector is chaotic.
Patients who initially benefitted through the dissolved National Hospital Insurance Fund, are getting a raw deal from limping and ill-defined Social Health Insurance Fund.
Angry citizens are telling the political class that, rampant official corruption, crisis in education, health sector and the economy are more pressing issues than lynching the DP.
If the eviction must continue, critics say a double eviction for the president and the DP would seem fair for a pair that has reneged on their campaign promises.
But again, the impeachment of the president, which should be initiated through there would be clarity if the Constitution had intended the President and the Deputy President to be impeached as a package. The demand for double eviction from some quarters is an expression of public anger with the ExecutiveโฆCLICK HERE TO READ MORE ARTICLES>>>
