In the history of Kenya, there are Vice Presidents that did not get the privilege to serve a tenure of more than one and half years in office.
They include;
1.Jaramogi Oginga Odinga – I year,123 days.(1964-1965)
Jaramogi Oginga is the father of the ODM chief Raila Odinga. He was credited with the phrase Not yet Uhuru. He served as Kenya’s first vice president of the first government headed by Jomo Kenyatta, father to the incumbent president of the land, Uhuru Kenyatta, and after a fallout, he proceeded to head the opposition of the government.
Jaramogi advocated for Kenya to forge closer ties with the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union which were members of the Warsaw pact, the then president Jomo Kenyatta advocated for closer ties with the United States and the western block. This prompted Jaramogi to resign as the Vice president, and head to the op[position.
2.Joseph Murumbi – 120 days (1965-1966)
He was born in Kenya in 1911, from a Goan father and Maasai mother, the daughter of Murumbi, the Maasai Laibon (political leader) for the Uasin Gishu Maasai. His father had arrived in Kenya in 1897 at the time the first railway was just entering the area where Murumbi was later born.
Murumbi was appointed by Jomo Kenyatta to succeed Oginga Odinga but he later resigned after 120 days, citing personal reasons. He served as the second vice president of the Republic of Kenya.
3.Josephat Karanja – 1 year, 37 days (1988-1989)
He served as the 5th Vice President of Kenya. He resigned to avoid an ongoing vote of no confidence in the Kenyan Parliament. He was accused by the now-late Hon. David Mwenje Member of Parliament for Embakasi Constituency of wanting to overthrow Late President Daniel Arap Moi’s government by soliciting help from foreign nations.
His large network of allies was from the west, mainly the US and Britain where he had been a high commissioner Ambassador. The speculation was fuelled by his wife who came from Uganda.
4. Musalia Mudavadi – 60 days (2002)
Mudavadi was the last and shortest-serving Vice-President of Kenya under President Moi. Mudavadi was appointed in an unsuccessful attempt to bring the then Western Province votes into the camp of KANU, which had been the party of government since independence
He ran for the Vice President’s seat in 2002 general elections under Uhuru Kenyatta as the flag bearer. He was the country’s seventh Vice-President.
5. Michael Kijana Wamalwa – 232 days (2003)
The Late Kijana Wamalwa was the eighth president of Kenya, serving under former president, Emilio Mwai Kibaki. In late 2002, during the election campaign, Mwai Kibaki was seriously injured in a car accident and was flown to London for treatment. There he was visited by Wamalwa, who also fell ill and had to be treated.
Kijana Wamalwa succumbed to the illness while undergoing treatment in London in mid of the year 2003.
Source: KENYAGIST.COM
