Distinguished professor Makau Mutua has advised Deputy President William Ruto to walk away after President Uhuru Kenyatta moved to trim his powers in a new sweeping executive order.
In the new changes that many see as another blow to the already wounded Ruto, the president seems to have clipped the DP’s autonomy after he put his (DP) position under the office of the president.
While reacting to the order, Mutua, a vocal Ruto critic, argued the second in command had endured enough and it was time to part ways with the head of state.
“Will DP William Ruto resign now that he’s been reduced to a mere factotum — without responsibility or authority — in the office of the president? I would walk away if I were him,” Mutua tweeted.
The professor argued Ruto had now been reduced to a mere “flower girl” who could do nothing without the permission of the president.
“The legal import and practical effect of executive order no 1 of 2020 is to neuter DP William Ruto and turn him into a mere officer within and under the total command of the office of the president,” he contended.
According to other law experts, the order also meant Ruto’s budget would be controlled by Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua who is junior to the DP.
“The executive order abolishes separate budget, administration and staffing for the deputy president …now henceforth, there will be singular budget, administration and staffing of the office of president under Joseph Kinyua. Ukur Yatani has been instructed. New Dawn,” city lawyer Donald Kipkorir wrote.
Senior Counsel Abdullahi, however, disagreed saying the presidency was an “elegant legal fiction” that never existed,
“The leading legal commentary on the executive order issued today by Uhuru are advanced on Twitter by laymen with zero legal education. The Constitution talks of the president, the deputy president…etc. the “presidency” is a “Constitutional heresy”,” he opined.
