The Executive circus of the Jubilee regime would be comical if it weren't tragic. The shared presidency, which started about a decade ago, with high-sounding ambitions and hopes of economic growth, is fractured.
The trading of blames for the regime's failures, and scramble for credit for its successes, expose the discordance of the post-2010 Constitution co-presidents. The Deputy President shares Executive power and privileges but blames the President for the regime's flops.
The bond of the once 'dynamic duo' was an opportunistic lie. Shared interest in the outcomes of their crimes against humanity cases then at the International Criminal Court bonded the duo. They needed a unified front to ward off international justice.
What were stated as facts three years ago are being revised to score political points. President Uhuru Kenyatta's Labour Day call to Deputy President William Ruto to resign marks the lowest point, so far, of the fractious Executive.
The President asked his estranged deputy to stop heckling without providing solutions to national challenges, like the debt burden, rising fuel prices and soaring cost of living.
The DP tweeted a contemptuous response, on Labour Day: "SORRY my Boss.I FEEL your pain.Those you ASSIGNED my RESPONSIBILITIES & 'project' mzee have let you DOWN miserably.They bangled our BIG4,killed our party & wasted your 2ND term.Wao ni bure kabisa.Boss,am AVAILABLE.Just a PHONE call away.Sadly last CABINET was 2yrs ago. Yule No.2"
The DP's response, and contradictions therein, should worry right-thinking citizens. There is a courage deficit in sharing credit and debits in equal measure. Instead, the DP is scouting for excuses to rationalise Jubilee's bumbles and fumbles.
For the DP, Jubilee's failures belong to the President but he demands 50 per cent of Jubilee successes. The DP enjoys perks of power and taxpayer-sponsored privileges, but he denies responsibility for the misadventures of the Jubilee government.
The government pays for the DP's royal-size official residence in Karen; pays his salary and spurious allowances; maintains his hyped security and staff; pays his electricity and water bills.
The DP sits in the Cabinet and often belabours being number two in a government he disparages every time he holds a microphone.
The President is leaving office in about 90 days - weeks too long for those who want him gone. But the DP, who should share responsibility, with the President, like he shares State power, is running for president. He claims to be the solution to the challenges he helped to create. This should worry right-thinking citizens.
The DP's penchant for contradictions is documented. The Internet is a good keeper of records, of what leaders said yesterday and what they are saying today.
During a February 12, 2019, interview on BBC's HARDtalk with Stephen Sackur, the DP said he was part of a decision that created Executive Order Number 1 of 2019. He was then dismissing claims he was being sidelined.
The Order assigned key government supervisory functions to the Interior Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiang'i. Now, the DP and his poodles claim the Presidential Order was a sack notice for the man who was 'elected on one ticket' with the President.
"Those sideline stories have no basis at all. The functions of Deputy President ... the functions of a Deputy President are in the Constitution," the DP told BBC.
"The President and I agreed on how we are going to make the government much more efficient and to deliver.
"His committee is a Cabinet committee. That committee reports to the President and myself. How on earth can you talk about sidelining if the same committee, ultimately, reports to the president and myself."
It's election time. Supposed truths of yesterday are being revised to attract sympathy. It's doublespeak!
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