OMWENGA: Uhuru’s inability to politically tame Ruto troubling

In the yesteryear when women enjoyed far less rights than they do today, one would often hear an expression that the woman is the one wearing pants in their homestead.

This was a pejorative and sexist way of describing the man of the home as weak and incapable of handling his wife “properly”.

It was another way of saying he is not capable of getting his woman to permanent submission.

That is no longer the case — at least among most civilised people who value equal rights for women.

However, in any family, there must be a hierarchy by which authority is exercised such that the husband and the wife defer to each other in decision making, letting the one with more value to add take the lead.

If there is disagreement, one would hope—in a healthy relationship—that the couple has figured and have in place a system by which to break the impasse for good of the family.

Some of the decisions a family must make are too mundane to make any difference whether there is an impasse or whether either of the couple’s decisions or choices is agreed to.

Most couples prefer to t let things fly and not be bogged down with such nitty-gritty issues.

However, if it is a fundamental decision such as, for example, whether to send a child to this school or another, or whether to buy your 10-year-old an iPhone 12 Promax, then here is where paternalism and sexism creep in.

This is because it is more likely than not that it is the male who has more economic power and therefore more says to likely prevail in that decision over the other spouse.

Conversely, if the spouse without the economic means insists on the couple undertaking a costly and unnecessary expense, the one with economic power will simply shrug that one-off, knowing there is absolutely nothing the other spouse can do.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy William Ruto have been in a broken marriage now going on for at least more than two years.

It is clear by now the two are not seeing eye to eye on anything.

Were this a matter for the family court, a divorce would have occurred long ago.

Now that it is not, the only legal parting that can separate the two beyond where they are is impeaching Ruto, which is unlikely.

Uhuru has now openly asked Ruto to resign, which is the only other option. But Ruto said he wouldn’t relent.

“I am a man on a mission. I have no space to retreat nor the luxury to surrender,” Ruto tweeted.

In the old days, Uhuru would have been dared to prove he is the one, indeed, wearing pants in the homestead, and not his disrespectful and misbehaving partner.

There are several ways Uhuru can do this in accordance with Ephesians 5:22 by starting with reshuffling the Cabinet and fire everyone who is not fully in toe with his plans to have a successor worth the nation cheering in the spirit of BBI.

Failure to do this will have Ruto clawing his way back into a force to reckon.

Sam Omwenga is a legal analyst and political commentator