Two Gnassingbé Brothers One Presidency – The Alleged Coup d'État

LOMÉ – Kpatcha Gnassingbé was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly attempting to distabilize the Togolese Republic by plotting a coup against the government in power, led by his elder brother, President Faure Gnassingbé. Only two days later, a second half-brother of the President is arrested in connection with the same plot. An analyst from the University of California, Benjamin Lawrance, told Radio France International on Wednesday that the last incident really “shouldn't come as a surprise – No”.

Whilst reactions to the news in the capital from Togolese political party members were still forthcoming on Wednesday afternoon, and particularly concerning Kpatcha Gnassingbé who was reportedly seeking refuge in the American embassy at the time of his arrest – according to the government – Benjamin Lawrance said he thought “It was only a matter of time […] that Kaptcha would attempt a coup”.

“Kpatcha is a military person, and he has been in the military all his life like his father and he was leader of various prefectures and leader of Les Forces Armées Togolaises. He had a large military cohort behind him all the time, so he was the obvious choice.”

“The obvious choice,” according to Lawrance analysis; and yet instead of him, it was his half-brother that the onetime longest-serving African Head of State, the late Gnassingbé Eyadéma, chose to groom for the presidency.

Following his father's death four years ago, Kpatcha Gnassingbé therefore did not assume the duties of president, but rather that of the country's Defence Minister until he was forced to leave the Cabinet at a time of reshuffle only two years later without official motive by his sibling. Kpatcha Gnassingbé, four years younger than his now 43-year old half-brother with Ewe roots, also represented the northern city of Kara as the area's MP upon his selection in legislative elections back in October 2007.

The BBC has reported on its website that there have been speculations of tensions between the two brothers for over a year now.

Among the over fifty children Eyadema Gnassingbé is credited of having, only four sons have attracted considerable public attention. But Benjamin Lawrance said “there are three members of the family who imagine they should be president […] and Kpatcha was one of them,”

The President has an academic background in management studies as he took the course in France before heading for the United States where he later acquired his advanced degree.

“Faure only rose to prominence in the last three to five years of his father's life […] and various members of the military made the decision that it would look better for their country to have in power a younger modern-looking Western-trained leader, if they were going to achieve various goals. And because fo that then, the military would divide between the two brothers,” Lawrence added.

Odds are that the worst the Togolese people may have to deal with, should the situation ever escalade, is a nation widespread violence between the two brothers' ethnic groups, namely the Ewe, who live in the southern part of Togo, and the Kabye spread in the north of the country.

The mothers of the two men – that is Faure and Kpatcha Gnassingbé's mothers – come from these groups respectively, groups whose relationship is already labelled as being traditionally tense, but restrained.

However for the time being, Faure Gnassingbé certainly enjoys a better position than his brother, “the key issue,” as Benjamin Lawrance suggested on Wednesday, “is that Faure's position is pretty secure because the majority of the paramilitaries, […] were Eyadema's main support, and they firmly threw their backing behind Faure.”