BY OKECH KENDO
The besieged Deputy President – a loyal son of the people of the mountain – was complicit in his eviction.
He boosted the speed of his ejection from the Executive.
The choreographed haste turned a constitutional process into a lynch.
That is how it appears in the eyes of the empathetic.
The ejection was executed with malicious precision, especially at the Senate.
The nomination of the replacement, vetting and foiled swearing-in of Deputy President-designate Kithure Kindiki, were intended to pre-empt possible legal roadblocks.
But litigators caught up with the hurried procedure, causing an unprecedented stalemate in the Executive.
The Upper House rejected the plea to give the outgoing Deputy President a chance to show up for the lynch.
But the impeachment wasn’t programmed to stop, even though the process allows a breather.
The signs were ominous, but Rigathi Gachagua kept yapping even when the noose was tightening around his neck.
In turn, his tormentors continued twisting the knife even when the victim of their zeal was down on his knees.
Even on the sickbed, there was no relenting; there was no let-up.
Former Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri was inconsolable.
Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba and former Laikipia East MP Cate Warunguru cried as the sun set on the career of a political ally.
The tears were double-edged.
They were aimed at the ground and a national audience.
The ground, it is hoped, would see that, even though the sympathetic couldn’t stop the lynch, no matter how hard they tried, the moaners stood by their ‘Truthful Man’.
Sympathy may come their way during the next election.
They hope the lynched DP would return favour to the few elected leaders who cried with him.
They showed up for Rigathi when opportunists deserted him during his hour of need.
But the tears could also incite the mountain.
The moaners were telling the mountain they have been betrayed, misused and abused.
These, coming about three years after the people of the mountain rejected their own.
They disowned former president Uhuru Kenyatta .
The former president was seen to have betrayed then Deputy President William Ruto.
Now President Ruto has abandoned their son, who helped him to slay dynasties.
The acerbic tongue of the son of Mathira is no longer useful to power.
It wasn’t a movie — it was a brutal reality of political treachery.
But no amount of tears of friends, allies and supporters could turn the clock, which was programmed to achieve a purpose.
The former Mathira MP, who styles himself as a ‘Truthful Man’, had two choices: To fight to lose his political present and immediate future.
The other choice was to appreciate the resolve of forces ranged against him.
He would then resign to secure his future.
Truthful Man, probably taking incestuous advice from loyalists, chose self-destruction.
It’s not fair to reason.
A man who says he may not be clever, but he is not stupid, faced the battle, lonely and bare-chested.
It’s the tragedy of hubris.
Realpolitik eluded political advisers of the beleaguered DP.
But, being no coward the ‘Son of Mau Mau’ rejected the advice to resign.
Gachagua got into a political battle without numbers because of his inability to make and retain friends.
Forty-four MPs couldn’t save him against 281, who were baying for blood.
This was the time to give up the fight.
Cowards live to fight another day, but the son of the Mau Mau was no coward.
Resignation would have given him a lifeline to fight another day.
Impeachment upends Gachagua’s political ambitions for the next decade.
But he can still be an active kingmaker, which is how teary allies may gain from his endorsement during the 2027 general election.
Remnants of the Azimio coalition are shedding crocodile tears to bag Gachagua’s endorsement.
But the Kalonzo Musyoka plank of the 2022 election coalition, thin on numbers but high on hope, could not save their future benefactor.
Gachagua, though, may not be done yet.
There may be a silver lining in the persecution: Founding President Jomo Kenyatta suffered colonial detention to turn a liberator.
Uhuru endured International Criminal Court indictment to become a hero.
Betrayal may be what Gachagua, a former district officer, needs to be the kingpin of the Agikuyu.
Good
luck, Comrade!