Increasing pressure to remove the deputy president is a double-edged sword for Ruto and his friends

Many people think that DP Gachagua will fight back politically and legally if the impeachment works.

If Kenyan President William Ruto doesn’t step in too late, an impeachment motion against Deputy President (DP) Rigathi Gachagua could be brought up in Parliament in the next few days. This is because this week, an MP said he had enough papers to support the bid to remove Gachagua.

MPs who want to remove Mr. Gachagua from office say he is responsible for supporting politics that divide people based on race, undermining the president, and playing a part in the anti-government uprising in June and July that led to the overthrow of Parliament.

There were street protests against tax increases that started the uprising, and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) wants four people connected to the DP to be charged with crimes linked to it. This includes two Nairobi MPs.

In a statement released Thursday, Mr. Gachagua said that the DCI’s probe of his staff and allies was politically motivated and was part of a plan to remove him from office.

At least two-thirds of members in both the National Assembly and the Senate will have to vote for the removal motion in order to remove the DP from office.

The last time a Kenyan vice president was removed in a similar way was in 1989, when an MP brought a vote of no confidence against Dr. Josephat Karanja, who was vice president at the time, for supposedly working against President Daniel Arap Moi.

Dr. Karanja had been Kenya’s first ambassador to Britain and vice-chancellor at the University of Nairobi before he had to step down after only one year and one month in office.

If he hadn’t quit, the president of Kenya would have fired him under the old Constitution.

The new Constitution, which was passed in 2010, however, says that the president can’t fire a DP.

The group that wants to remove Mr. Gachagua from office is still sure that it can easily get 233 MPs to vote for the motion, which is two-thirds of the National Assembly.

In response to the protests led by young people that shook his administration and forced him to get rid of his first Cabinet in July, President Ruto has made a deal with the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), which has the second most MPs in the country. This is part of his plan to tighten his control over Parliament.

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga is in charge of ODM. He is running for head of the African Union Commission (AUC) and has the support of the Kenyan President.

If Mr. Odinga can get most of his party’s 85 MPs to vote with the Kenya Kwanza Coalition, Mr. Gachagua will be removed from office.

If you are taken from office by impeachment, you can’t run for public office again. This means that Mr. Gachagua, who wants to be president, would have to fight for his political life.

The group that is against Gachagua also thinks that impeaching the DP might help stop the revolt he is starting within the government and their party, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).

But for President Ruto and his political friends, it is still a double-edged sword.

Most people think that the rude Gachagua will fight back politically and legally if the recall works, unlike the calm Dr. Karanja who left with barely a whisper 35 years ago.

In the past, Kenyan courts have saved the political careers of several county leaders by overturning the Senate’s decision to remove them from office.

Also, impeachment cases in court can last for months, which gives the leaders involved a lot more time in office.

A long court battle for Mr. Gachagua would give him time to move toward his goal of becoming the political king of the populous Mt. Kenya region, while still enjoying State benefits like a seven-figure salary, fancy travel perks, a fleet of government cars, and an escort from the president.

Over 40% of President Ruto’s slightly more than seven million votes in the 2022 election came from Mt. Kenya.

In his quest to take back power from the President of the region, Mr. Gachagua has mostly been successful in using a nationalist story about being persecuted for protecting the interests of the local community to gain support.

Another thing that will worry President Ruto is that the Gachagua impeachment fight is making things more heated in politics.

His support has dropped a lot since the protests against tax increases in June and July.

What would he rather have: his rogue assistant peeing inside the tent or outside?