From Jaramogi’s woes to taming of Ruto: Why Number Two seat is ‘jinxed’

History repeating self? Ruto finds himself in the same murky waters that drowned most of his predecessors, where does he go from here

After 56 years of broken promises, failed friendships and backstabbing, one would have expected that the occupants of the important office at Harambee Annex and their supporters would learn some lessons.

But have they?

Kenya has had 10 Vice Presidents, who were dogged by controversies, ouster plots and political backstabbing that led to resignations and sackings.

At the dawn of the betrayal in Kenya’s political capital, rumors swirled, propelling a widow who ran a restaurant at Nairobi’s Shauri Moyo estate to go into a state of mourning.

Mrs Salome Mitula was inconsolable as she tearfully belted up dirges, rolled herself on the ground and pleaded with the Vice President not to resign. 

Mitula, who was the Secretary of Luo Thrift Company, and politicians Jael Mbogo and Phoebe Asiyo had tried in vain to convince Jaramogi Oginga Odinga not to resign. 

Change the constitution

The resignation was a culmination of months of contests and struggles within the ruling party Kanu and Parliament.

Andrew Morton aptly captures the strife in the ruling party and government then in his book, Moi: The Making of An African Statesman. 

According to Morton, a clique of Jomo Kenyatta’s allies was concerned that Jaramogi was getting too powerful and sent a delegation of MPs to the President to tell him that his deputy had taken over Parliament.

“This was the beginning of the so-called Corner Group, an alliance of MPs opposed to Odinga. At times, ministers themselves attended meetings of this ginger group…” he writes. 

The implosion in Kanu not only neutered Jaramogi politically, but also claimed the lives of his allies such Pio Gama Pinto and his political foes such as Tom Mboya. Jaramogi was replaced by Joseph Murumbi who thought his closeness to Kenyatta  convinced the latter to pardon Pinto.

Pinto had crossed the red line when he called the revered President bastard and had been advised to flee the country. 

Ironically, a week before Pinto was gunned down on February 24, 1965, Murumbi had told him it was safe to come back to Nairobi, confident that no harm would come to him.

Two months after he was sworn in as the Vice President on May 13, 1966, he drafted his resignation letter, which he handed over in November 1966, setting a records of sorts as the shortest serving Vice President until it was broken 36 years later by Musalia Mudavadi.  

But even after Murumbi resigned, Morton observes, Jaramogi’s downfall had set a precedent to the position of the Vice President as never again would Kenyatta appoint someone who could pose a threat.

Kenyatta chose one of his ministers, Daniel Moi, because he was self-effacing, loyal and posed no political threat to his power. But Kenyatta’s inner Cabinet soon started hatching a plot to stop Moi from succeeding Mzee. The plotters were Mbiyu Koinange, Dr Njoroge Mungai, Kihika Kimani, Paul Ngei, James Gichuru, Njenga Karume and Jackson Angaine, who formed the Change the Constitution movement.

Their aim was to amend the Constitution to delete the clauses which stipulated that in the event of death, incapacitation or resignation of the President, the Vice President would automatically take over for 90 days. 

There were plots and counter plots to block Moi from ascending to power. It is against this background that a welfare society was formed ostensibly to bring together Gikuyu, Embu and Meru in association. Kenyatta chaired Gema’s first meeting in Gatundu. At its apex, it had 100,000 members. According to Morton, the group had a war chest of Sh3 million to block Moi in a multifaceted approach that saw some of Moi’s supporters like Mvita MP Sharrif Nassir arrested in 1972.

Another Moi backer, Ronald Ngala, died in mysterious circumstances in December the same year. Kanu elections scheduled for 1977 were for the first time since 1966 postponed as harassment against Moi intensified, with his car being searched even when he was coming from presidential functions at State House Nakuru. A militia group, Ngoroiko, was formed in a bid to forment a coup in the event Kenyatta died.

But as fate would have it, according to Morton, Ngoroko’s funder Koinange made a grave mistake when on August 22, 1978, he insisted on traveling to Nairobi.

He had pestered the President to allow him to travel from Mombasa. By the time the President died, he was hundreds of kilometers away and could not control the course of events to block the man he disliked from being sworn-in a few hours after the death.

After Mwai Kibaki was appointed Vice President in 1978, he had his own dose of humiliations, which intensified after the 1982 attempted coup. 

On the day of the coup, former Central Provincial Commissioner David Musila recalls in his memoirs, Seasons of Hope, Kibaki called to talk to his boss and did not know what to do when the call was terminated.

At the twilight of his reign as Vice President, Kibaki was humiliated by political minnows and almost lost his parliamentary seat in Othaya. He was eventually sacked in 1988. 

The tenure of his replacement, Dr Josphat Karanja, was short because he had to resign after being accused of behaving like a god for telling people to kneel before him.  

George Saitoti started off off as a little known political novice from the world of academia, but for the next 10 years would outgrow his tag as a greenhorn and become a household name.  

One of Saitoti’s most traumatic moments was in February 1990 when somebody poisoned him through his food. Though he escaped miraculously, Saitoti would subsequently lead a guarded political life.  

He was condemned to 448 days in political wilderness after he was temporarily sacked from January 8, 1998 to April 1999.  Saitoti met his Waterloo in March 2002 when he was disabused of the idea that he was going to succeed President Moi. Uncharacteristically, he complained publicly when he found his name missing from the list of Kanu delegates only to be admonished by his boss, “Kimya professor, kama jina lako haliko! (Silence professor, if your name is not there)

Saitoti, who was sacked on August 30, 2002 would later die in a helicopter crash on June 10, 2012 just after announcing his presidential candidature. He was in the process of establishing his campaign headquarters.  

Musalia Mudavadi occupied this office for just 60 days, from November 4, 2002 to January 3, 2003. Michael Wamalwa Kijana was the darling of the masses when he was appointed to deputise Kibaki after Narc euphorically swept Kanu out of power in 2002.

Short stint

His short stint lacked sparks that trigger juicy political fights, but made history as the only Vice President to die in office. He died in a London hospital on August 23, 2003.

Moody Awori, who took over from Wamalwa, did not stoke as much controversy as his predecessors or successors, perhaps because he was not power hungry enough to try to oust his boss.

Kenya’s last Vice President, Kalonzo Musyoka, whose dalliance with Party of National Unity was as controversial as Kibaki’s presidential win in 2007, also speaks of betrayal.  

Despite stablising Kibaki’s government, Kalonzo got the proverbial stab in the back after he was elbowed out of the presidential race by Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, who despite earlier promises, told him off in the run up to the 2013 elections.

And now, Deputy President William Ruto finds himself in the same murky waters. Only time will tell whether he will swim or drown.