Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua during a trek along Mawingu Trail on the slopes of Mt. Kenya. [DPCS]
The script used to fight Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua bears a lot of similarities with the one used when Josephat Njuguna Karanja, the fifth vice president of Kenya, was kicked out of office by President Daniel arap Moi in 1989.
First, MPs from his own Kikuyu community were used as the attack dogs that quickly pounced on Karanja at lightning speed and were very hostile to him both inside and outside Parliament.
They raised all manner of accusations, just like the grounds of impeachment listed against Gachagua, including plotting to take over power. And like Gachagua whose troubles started when his boss was in New York two weeks ago, Karanja was also targeted when Moi was away in Tanzania.
As in Gachagua’s case, Karanja’s troubles began with claims at political rallies that he was undermining the President and other leaders by demanding that they kneel before him. Karanja’s detractors said he had no legitimacy because he had been imposed on the people of Mathare constituency after their MP Andrew Ngumba fled the country.
