Humanist

“Kenya senate upholds Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua impeachment,” announced The East African, yesterday. This momentous and humongous event is on my mind.

What a great example of democratic governance and defense of a nation’s constitution. No one is above the supreme law of the land, wow! An ideal difficult to believe enforceable in the minds of citizens in the other East Africa Community Partner States.

Especially, Uganda, where post independence we have not had a substantive peaceful transition of power from one president to another via the genuine will of the people. And where people’s representatives unabashedly express loyalty to the president and first family, above their constituents and colleagues in the august house.

How refreshing it was to read about the Kenya Deputy President impeachment process. To appreciate that the other arms of government, especially the armed forces and the executive, did not overtly and menacingly interfere with the process as the people’s representatives held the Deputy President accountable.

That people’s representatives can call a deputy president to order and to account is unthinkable in East Africa or even on the wider continent, generally. In our neck of the woods powers of the executive through brute force and otherwise have been normalized as supreme.

Well, the people’s representatives in Kenya have exercised their duty. They debated eleven grounds for the Deputy President’s impeachment – his gross misconduct (three grounds); serious reasons to be that he committed crimes (three grounds); and gross violation of the constitution (five grounds).

Following debate and offering the accused an opportunity to defend himself, the people’s representatives voted. On five of the 11 grounds they found the Deputy President had conducted himself in an unacceptable manner and they impeached him, prematurely ending his term of office.

Juxtaposition with how in other East African nations, the people’s representatives went against the will of the people and amended their nation’s constitutions to remove clauses that would ensure presidential transition via term and age limits. As well as disabling clauses that provide the constituents the power to recall non-performing people’s representatives.

I digress. Back to the point. The level of constitutionalism in the national governance of Kenya is worth huge celebration in East Africa, Africa and the world over.