KAIKAIS KICKER: The scramble for running mate and the awaiting curse of vice presidency

On my kicker, a keen historian with a good sense of political misfortune would be watching so so gleefully the animated scramble for position of running mate; a scramble that has consumed the two main political formations - Raila Odinga's Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party and DP William Ruto's Kenya Kwanza alliance.

The events that include elaborate selection panels and advisory boards makes for real good free entertainment for realistic historians of presidential politics. This is because there is something provenly futile about the office of Vice President or Deputy President as Kenyans renamed it in the 2010 Constitution. You see the culture of running mate and the office of Vice President was founded in the United States of America nearly three centuries ago, and throughout that long history, the office and its successive occupants have consistently faced what would be called a relevance challenge.

The Americans founded the office more as a backup for continuity in times of the unfortunate passing of the president. And that is why they talk of a Vice President being just a heartbeat away from the Office of the President. The morbid yet true interpretation of this is that the Vice President becomes relevant when the heart of the President stops beating. And I spoke of futility because, even by the American example, this has many times proved to be a futile wait. Out of the 46 presidents, only 9 have risen to become presidents midterm due to either the death or resignation of the president. One of them became president when the president died of food poisoning. And out of the 48 vice presidents in american history, only five have risen to become president through elections; something that trashes the notion that the vice presidency can necessarily be a stepping stone to the presidency.

Let me come back home to the ongoing scramble for the new animal called running mate and of course subsequently, office of the deputy president. This scramble, some historians may say, is misplaced. The 11th deputy president of Kenya Dr William Ruto is just about to complete his term in the same way most of his predecessors did. He replaced Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka in 2013, Musyoka having served as Mwai Kibaki's vice president of five years.

In terms of political fortunes, Kalonzo got zero value for holding the position of vice president and having even come in as the late Kibaki's political savior in the disputed 2007 election. His was the typical fate of vice presidents - doomed to irrelevance and condemned to obscurity. Then there was Uncle Moody Awori, the caretaker vice president appointed by Kibaki upon the death of vice president Michael Wamalwa. Uncle Moody disappeared in the political swamp of Busia, defeated in his own constituency. Michael Wamalwa Kijana's story was unfortunately cut short by death only 8 months into office. We never know how it would have played out for him.

Under the second president Daniel arap Moi, Musalia Mudavadi served for an inconsequential three months and suffered the indignity of a sitting vice president tasked to support a younger, less experienced candidate in Uhuru Kenyatta. Then there was the late vice president George Saitoti, an accomplished academician dismissed as a mere friend by president Moi at the height of succession politics in 2002. Saitoti was fired and replaced with Musalia Mudavadi three months to the election.

Mwai Kibaki who became the third president had to take the long route to State House. He served as vice president for 10 years, but was unceremoniously demoted to health minister before he quit to try his luck through the opposition. His former boss Daniel Toroitich arap Moi is the only vice president who rose to office upon the death of the president. His two predecessors as vice presidents Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Joseph Murumbi ended up with ruined personal lives after being kicked out of office.

So for those scrambling for running mate, an interaction with the history and reality of the office of vice president or deputy president could be very humbling. It is not a bed of roses and it is not even by the nearest stretch a stepping stone to the presidency. It is many things including a proverbial political purgatory where the occupants wait for the unknown. Others are less kind in their description of the office of vice president - it is a curse for the ambitious and maybe just may be, a reward for the patient.