Future presidents should work well with their deputies

We have completed the experimental period. Now we are entering the age of harmony. Parties will have a huge say in Parliament. This is because no president will try to fire his or her deputy on a whim.

No one will try to insert the opposition chief or allow him to usurp a position he did not win at the election. And no deputy will try to push out the principal without major disruptions.

That winners will never become losers while serving except by operation of law and not by the whim of the president. That is because they laboured and toiled and woke up early to elect them as the Constitution demands.

That the offices they occupy and the powers they have, were donated to the winners by the Constitution and they do not serve at the mercy of the president. That their remuneration should never be offered to someone else except after due process to deserving persons. And that no one should never pretend that a kangaroo process is due process.

I believe the 2010 Constitution is firmly in place and no one will succeed in trashing it the way the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) tried. Moreover, I cannot imagine someone attempting to mislead Kenyans that they need to change the Constitution at this time.

Furthermore, I do not envisage a situation like we had in 2017 where a loser wants to avoid the law and a repeat election and chooses his own coronation. Followed by a BBI that could strip the deputy of his office or his chance of becoming president. I believe lessons have been learned and internalised.

And since we are a sporting country, there is always a winner and a loser. We know what the winner gets and what the loser loses. From then on the trophy belongs to the winner. Offices are like that for the period granted by law.

No one should, therefore, have the power to strip you of the title and whatever goes with it except as stipulated. Least of all, an office you sought from the public through an election that you won. Civilisation would be worse for such denials or subversion of the norm.

Kenya has a bright future so long as there is social justice. Bickering between two apex level individuals like the President and his Deputy paints us in opaque colours.

What should happen is for the Speaker of the Senate to constitute a special committee to look into the why and wherefore the bickering.

The president and his deputy must also learn to balance between Wanjiku and mega projects. In a crisis, Wanjiku comes first. Kenyans suffered during Covid-19 and still suffer while the government remained unmoved. We are grateful for the political ugali. But the subsidy will end. Will the government allow an inordinate price hike after the subsidy?

The writer is a lawyer