The revolving door that is Kenya’s deputy presidency

The politics of the presidency is one of absolute opposites and can only succeed when the president and his deputy work in tandem rather than at cross-purposes.

The Constitution recognises the president as the head of state and government, with Article 147 stating that the deputy president “shall be the principal assistant of the president and shall deputise for the president in the execution of the president's functions.”

Kenya has experienced its fair share of fall-outs between presidents and their deputies, majorly attributed to the clashing of ideas, competing interests and succession politics.

It all began with the acrimonious falling-out between Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, majorly over policy positions, leading to Oginga’s resignation in 1966.

During his tenure as president, Daniel arap Moi fell out with Mwai Kibaki, leading to the latter’s demotion from vice president to Minister for Health in 1988, and with Joseph Karanja, resulting in his resignation in 1989 after only one year in office.

The race to succeed Moi created a rift between him and the then Vice President George Saitoti, who was interested in the presidency, leading to his dismissal in August 2002, with Musalia Mudavadi taking his place.

Moi settled on Uhuru Kenyatta as his preferred successor with Musalia Mudavadi as his running mate, leading to a mass exodus from Kanu that saw Saitoti, Raila Odinga and others form the National Rainbow Coalition that eventually won the 2022 General Election, with Mwai Kibaki as president and Kijani Wamalwa as VP.

Most recently, the bromance witnessed in the full glare of the camera when Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto took office in 2013 fizzled out as years went by, with a full-blown rift playing out in their second term in office. Uhuru would then enter into a political agreement with Raila Odinga and throw his support behind the ODM leader in the 2022 presidential contest against Ruto.