A bitter public feud erupted on Tuesday between Deputy President Kithure Kindiki and his predecessor Rigathi Gachagua, with the two leaders exchanging sharp barbs over constitutional law and political conduct.
The confrontation escalated when Kindiki dismissed Gachagua’s attempts to question his understanding of the Constitution, telling the former Deputy President to “stay in his lane.”
In a strongly-worded statement posted on social media, Kindiki accused Gachagua of thriving on insults, division, and what he termed “primitive politics.”
“Wamitego. Your comparative advantage is in matters insults, division. Stay in your lane,” Kindiki wrote.
The Deputy President also defended his legal credentials, asserting that he had spent years studying constitutional law across multiple jurisdictions.
“I hear you want to teach me Constitutional Law, and that you doubt my understanding of not just the Constitution of Kenya but of the over one hundred other national constitutions that I started studying many years ago when you were busy stealing relief food,” Kindiki said.
The exchange followed Gachagua’s earlier criticism of Kindiki’s interpretation of constitutional provisions relating to presidential terms and President William Ruto’s re-election prospects.
Speaking on Tuesday, Gachagua accused Kindiki of misreading the Constitution and embarrassing himself and the Mount Kenya region.
“Please, don’t embarrass us. You are our son. You are thinking and reading the Constitution upside down,” Gachagua said.
The former Deputy President argued that if the framers of the Constitution had intended every President to automatically serve two terms, they would have expressly provided for a 10-year tenure.
He also recalled President Ruto’s previous statements about returning to voters after his first term to seek their verdict based on his performance.
“He (Ruto) said that he only needs one term, then he will go back to the people to ask for the vote, and that if he did not perform, they should send him home,” Gachagua stated.
The latest confrontation stems from recent comments by Kindiki dismissing the “Wantam” political slogan popularised by critics of the Kenya Kwanza administration.
“There is no such thing as one term in the Constitution, and whoever says so has not read it well. The Constitution says two terms; the first to introduce programmes, policies, projects and changes, while the second term is to complete the projects,” Kindiki had said.
He argued that the Constitution recognises major government programmes often require more than five years to implement, justifying a President’s right to seek a second term.
Kindiki expressed confidence that President Ruto would secure another mandate based on the administration’s development record.
Moving beyond constitutional debate, Kindiki accused Gachagua of tarnishing the image of the Mount Kenya region.
“Who has embarrassed the Mount Kenya region more than the person whose greed and incompetence is making us spend so much time explaining that you do not represent our change from the values projected by statesmen born in our region of birth, who served our country in the past with honour, distinction and excellence?” Kindiki posed.
