No. President William Ruto does not politically need his deputy Rigathi Gachagua now that Ruto is busy trying to entrench himself in power. One could make the case that, yes, Ruto needs Gachagua because of the constitution that spells out the duties and responsibilities of a deputy President but that is constitutionally speaking.
Politically speaking, the answer is no, Ruto does not need Gachagua. The converse is not true, however; Gachagua needs Ruto for sure.
Although the constitution requires the DP to be elected together with the President and the DP position is so entrenched it's not easy to remove a DP from office. The position is nonetheless as weak or strong as the person occupying it.
Put another way, contrary to what the constitution provides and what many believe, a President can very easily run a government without the DP.
For the benefit of those who may have been too young or not alive to know, we were once without a DP (then called vice president) for more than a year.
This was back in January 1998 when then-President Daniel Arap Moi refused to appoint a VP for more than one year. Moi did this for political reasons but mainly to make the point he did not need a deputy to govern.
The “number of sufurias of ugali you cook in your homes will not increase,” Moi declared when he got around to wanting to appoint a VP just to reiterate the point he was making that having a VP was not a big deal to him.
Deputy or VPs not being a big deal to a President is not a phenomenon confined to Moi’s thinking; rather, even these days, few DPs have much to do in office other than to just sit there and wait to hopefully succeed their bosses, which is also not as common as many incorrectly assume.
Gachagua is the second DP under the 2010 Constitution substantively important, but he is following someone who so cleverly used that office in a way that is not likely to be replicated under Gachagua.
Many theories and stories abound about how Gachagua ended up being Ruto’s running mate and now DP. Whether true or not and however he got there, Gachagua now holds an office whose relevancy and power sharing is at the mercy of Ruto.
There’s nothing Gachagua can do about that, and, in fact, there are tell-tell signs or writing on the wall—take your pick—showing Ruto is already executing a political strategy to politically neuter Gachagua and chart a different course for his reelection in 2027 and, even more importantly, to shape the country’s politics beyond his term.
This is not personal but pure political calculation.
In his mind, it must be, Ruto has paid all political debts from 2022.
Going by his recent pronouncements, our fifth president doesn’t buy or believe in the government shareholding articulated and being promoted by Gachagua.
This is the correct position. Once a President is sworn to office, he represents all Kenyans, including those who did not support or vote for him.
National resources or benefits cannot be divided up or denied to anyone because of who they voted for or did not vote for.
Yes, that is easier said than done, but it cannot be a policy that it is done the other way to the detriment of millions whose sin is voting for their preferred candidate, a right guaranteed in our constitution.
Wise counsel, which Ruto seems to be heeding, is to aggressively reach out to those areas where he is unpopular and make inroads there with the wind of incumbency behind him.
This, of course, must go hand and glove with reducing the cost of living for everyone and getting the country going in the right direction both economically and politically.
Doing so, namely, reaching out and making sure everyone is served by the government notwithstanding how they voted will likely cost him support in other areas such as those where people feel entitled but in the long run, this will be better for Ruto, and better for the country.
That is the moral and constitutional obligation Ruto has and must deliver.