Rigathi Gachagua takes oath again after inauguration mistake

Rigathi Gachagua taking the oath of office on September 13, 2022 as Kenya's Deputy President. [Samson Wire, Standard]

Rigathi Gachagua was forced to retake his Oath of Due Execution of the Office of the Deputy President after a mix-up.

Gachagua, 57, was sworn into office at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi County on Tuesday, September 13.

Gachagua, who was on his second oath after swearing allegiance to protect the Constitution of Kenya, had a glitch-filled second session, forcing the Registrar of the Judiciary Anne Amadi, who was administering the oath, to ask him to re-take the oath.

The deputy president stuttered at the start of his due execution oath, saying: "I, Rigathi Gachagua, do swear that I will always, truly and diligently...."

He stuttered and froze after uttering "truly and diligently".

Amadi had to repeat the words several times for Gachagua to grasp and continue with his oath-taking.

However, Gachagua deviated from the script again, going ahead to read subsequent sentences before Amadi asked him to.

The Registrar of the Judiciary had to ask him to re-take the entire oath.

"May I request [you that] we take it (oath) again," she said.

In the re-take, Gachagua had an effortless exercise.

Following the goof, the deputy president shot to the top trends on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.

It's not uncommon for mistakes to happen during oath-taking for leaders.

On January 22, 2009, Obama, who was assuming office as President of the United States, took the oath of office a second time at the White House because a word was out of sequence when he was sworn in on January 21.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who first administered the oath to Obama on January 21, 2009 on the steps of the US Capitol, administered it again to the president on January 22, 2009 in front of reporters and a few members of the president's staff.

"We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday," the then-Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told a hastily gathered group of journalists, quoting a statement from White House counsel Greg Craig.

"But the oath appears in the Constitution itself and, out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath a second time."

During the ceremony on the steps of the Capitol, Roberts accidentally switched the word order when he administered the oath, saying: "I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully," instead of, "I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States."