There has been a loud chorus from President Uhuru Kenyatta, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and other commentators asking Deputy President William Ruto to resign.
While I don't speak or hold brief for the deputy president, I would advise him to ignore all the noise and distraction and continue discharging his constitutional duties until a new office holder is elected and sworn in in August 2022.
All these noisemakers urging him to resign are the same group that went to Naivasha during the constitutional making process in 2009 and designed such a deputy president after a huge outcry from the way previous vice president’s had been treated and humiliated by their bosses.
Raila Odinga’s own father Jaramogi was the first to be humiliated by Uhuru Kenyatta’s father, first President Jomo Kenyatta until he resigned.
Then came Murumbi who resigned again in a huff.
The second President Daniel Arap Moi was the next to suffer the ignominious abuse of the vice president's office in the twelve years he held that office.
Once he became president, he exacted the same humiliation on his vice presidents, the late George Saitoti suffering the most.
The Constitution of Kenya 2010 sought to remedy this situation by making the president and his deputy conjoined twins who can only be separated by a painful surgical political procedure whence one or both could die.
Therefore, the president can only tolerate his deputy until the next election.
An impeachment process which is the only avenue available for the removal of the deputy president cannot be legally implemented because a simple interpretation by the courts of any impeachment charges that may be framed are likely not to hold in scrutiny of the courts just as the BBI that flopped.
It will be tainted by hands dripping in dishonest political charges.
The presidency must restore maximum security to the deputy president to forestall tension and preclude any assassination attempts that we have seen befall other Kenyan political leaders before.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
