The impeachment of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in the National Assembly has exposed the treacherous and rapacious side of Kenyaโs current political class.[โฆ]CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLEโถ
Long before he made a robustly eloquent effort to save his besieged lofty State position before MPs and the public pulpit, his fate appears to have already been sealed.
As the DP makes a last-ditch attempt in the Senate to fight off a raft of charges crafted by bosom allies turned fierce hounds, it seems likely that the courts could be his final recourse for salvation.
He may have won a pyrrhic victory in the court of public opinion after so elaborately exposing the dark and distasteful side of government and the political mandarins among whom he has been a deep insider.
However, he may also be a victim of the predicament menacingly captured in a vicious African saying that a pack of hungry hyenas will feast on one of their own if they canโt find anything to eat.
That is the sad reality of MPs hunting Gachagua in the nasty political jungle. The only person who could have prevented the predators in the ferocious plot from ousting him has maintained a telling studious silence amid the unfolding drama.
During the campaigns before the 2022 presidential election and after the validation of their disputed victory in the Supreme Court, President William Ruto and his deputy were like inseparable twins in word and deed.
Stinging political salvos were directed at their avowed adversaries Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga who had mounted a formidable stab at the coveted hot seat as the former President denounced his then DP.
Gachagua was even more acerbic in his verbal attacks laden with innuendos of arrogant self-righteousness and gratification. Nobody expected that only two years later, Ruto would let his trusted ally who helped secure decisive votes from the Mt Kenya region be savaged by a pack of fierce political hounds.
More difficult to imagine, and in a bizarre twist of irony, Raila, the man he had so denigratingly vilified, would sit at the State high table as Gachagua fights a lone battle of survival with a handful of Mt Kenya loyalists.
Against advice from friends and foes to resign, the DP has chosen not to go down without a fight. Will he, like Samson, demolish the temple and destroy his captors with him? Should he fall in the Senate, his battle could go all the way to the Supreme Court, which ratified his victory with Ruto.
Whatever the outcome, Gachagua has, at least in the eyes of the public, managed to confirm the true character of the ruling class and the fiasco of ruthless political colleagues who have decided to stab him in the back.
First, he has proved that Parliament has been ensnared by the Executive. Second, his impeachment bears the hallmark of a calculated distraction from rampant high-level corruption and allegations of shady deals involving those in power.
Third, there is public disaffection against the authorities over human rights violations, inhumane forced evictions, police brutality, abductions, electoral and other injustices graphically exposed in the Gen Z protests.
Fourth, there is rising citizen discontent nationwide against political intolerance, ethnocentrism and nepotism in State and public appointments, harsh economic measures, excessive taxation, soaring unemployment and high cost of living.
Finally, the impeachment has hatched foreboding premonitions of ominous times aheadโฆCLICK HERE TO READ MORE ARTICLES>>>
