When a person de facto and de jure becomes President or Deputy President, they occupy office in trust for all Kenyans. Not for a select group. The Constitution is clear on the legal writ of the holders of public offices.
They become servants for all — I repeat all — Kenyans. It’s akin to the mother, or father, in a family. All the children under that roof belong to them.
You can’t feed, cloth, or house some while leaving any of them hungry, naked, or without shelter. If you do, you are a deadbeat father or mother, and the law should deal with you.
That’s why DP Rigathi Gachagua must be told in no uncertain terms that Kenya isn’t a company. No sir.
Since the assumption of office Deputy President, Mr Gachagua has exhibited shocking vitriol and contempt for Kenyans in the opposition not seen since the days of the Kanu one-party state.
When Mr Gachagua speaks, he emotes a revulsion and calumny for the side opposite that leaves you wondering whether he would de-nationalize them if he could.
He has all but said that people in Azimio La Umoja are not patriots. One wonders whether he thinks of them as green creatures — Martians — who are subhuman. I have seriously pondered the meaning of Mr Gachagua’s politics of exclusion.
This much is clear — unless Mr Gachagua is rewired, or reprogrammed, we are in for a very bad chapter in our history. Take that to the bank.
What are the implications, and likely consequences, of Mr Gachagua’s “philosophy” of politics? First, let’s understand what the form and substance of a company is in law. It’s a legal person that’s privately held by individuals who have the means to own and control its assets.
Usually, it has shareholders who are the beneficiaries of its largesse. Those external to the company are strangers and have no say in its affairs or how its assets are used, or shared. A shareholder in a company is a “have” while a stranger to it is a “have not.” Bluntly put, strangers to a company have no rights at all. Zilch. They might as well go jump into Lake Victoria, or worse.
Second, a company isn’t a democracy. It’s a dictatorship of those with the largest number of shares, its owners. Even among the shareholders, there are children of a lesser God. In this analogy, if the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin, according to Mr Gachagua, are the dominant shareholders, where are the other smaller shareholders who voted for Kenya Kwanza?
For example, do the Meru, Embu, and Tharaka count? Or are they the rump of Kenya Kwanza? If so, what about the Luhya who voted in even smaller numbers for Kenya Kwanza but are in the house? In the hierarchy of shareholders, are these “others” simply there at the mercy of the Big Two? Are they in the smaller rooms in their father’s house?
Mr Gachagua’s rhetoric implies something else that’s more sinister. In his mind, there are first-class and second-class citizens. The former are the chosen ones while the latter live at the will of the shareholders. To wit, they exist at the mercy of the first-class citizens.
In this nomenclature, second-class citizens must sit at the back of the bus and, perforce, wait for their “masters” to be served first. They are lucky to get any scraps from the high table. That’s what Mr Gachagua means when he says that the shareholders in the company called Kenya will be the first to get jobs and have their regions developed.
Those who voted for Azimio’s Raila Odinga are outcasts and must approach the high table on bended knee.
Third, the Gachagua theory of politics not only disenfranchises Kenyans who voted for Azimio, but his logic criminalises the essence of democracy. This is clear to everyone with a functioning noggin.
A central characteristic of Kenya’s polity is that it’s a multiparty democracy. But Mr Gachagua now argues that you are a second-class citizen if you exercise your democratic right to vote with your conscience for your preferred candidate.
You will pay dearly for being a patriot who attempts to bring our democracy to life. To Mr Gachagua, the people in Azimio are the children of one Lucifer called Mr Raila Odinga. We as Kenyans overthrew the Moi-KANU one-party state to eradicate this sort of thinking that is rooted in fascism.
Last week, Mr Gachagua was locked in a war of words with President William Ruto, his boss. President Ruto as much as told DP Gachagua that it’s “primitive and backward” to say or think that Kenya is an exclusionary company for some against others.
President Ruto correctly said that all Kenyans are equal irrespective of how, or for whom, they voted, and that his government shall serve every Kenyan without bias. Mr Gachagua retorted that he was unmoved and wouldn’t change his view.
- Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. @makaumutua.
