Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Budget cuts, complete sidelining, removal of his allies from party positions or impeachment are some of the options on the table in a plot to tame Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in response to his renewed political warpath.
Mr Gachagua on Sunday sensationally claimed assassination attempts as well as arrests of politicians perceived to be close to him in a wider scheme by state machinery to isolate him politically, essentially taking the political battle to his boss, President William Ruto’s doorstep.
The High Court on Tuesday issued orders stopping the police from arresting or detaining two of Mr Gachagua’s allies – Embakasi North MP James Gakuya and his Embakasi Central counterpart Benjamin Mejja Donk – linked to the Gen Z protests even as the battle lines within the ruling Kenya Kwanza begin to take shape.
Political machination
The escalation of the infighting has since pushed President Ruto’s allies into crafting a host of strategies to tame Mr Gachagua. The President’s close allies told Nation that Mr Gachagua was out to seek public sympathy by portraying himself as a victim of political machination.
Nation has established that State mandarins are working on a raft of strategies, among them financial starvation to cut on Mr Gachagua’s political activities. The budget cut is also intended to isolate and make him unable to facilitate political activities of some of his close allies.
Dr Ruto’s strategists are also said to have advised against impeachment as he could use it to rally the populous Mt Kenya region against the President. Instead, they are toying with the idea of completely sidelining him in the running of government. The argument by the strategists is that the relationship between Dr Ruto and Mr Gachagua is beyond repair.
Further, close allies of Mr Gachagua holding strategic positions, including in the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) are also targeted. Former Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala was the first casualty after he was sacked as the party’s Secretary General.
"No one consulted me on the ouster of Cleophas Malala. They evicted him at 5am. That is not how a ruling party should be behaving. As a party deputy leader, I wanted to attend but by 6am I was told by my people that the meeting was over," Mr Gachagua said on Sunday.
On Monday, President Ruto assented to the Supplementary Appropriation Bill that effected Sh6 billion budget cuts for State House and the Office of the Deputy President.
Although the budget cuts affected both offices, Mr Gachagua bore the heaviest brunt of recurrent cuts. His office lost Sh800 million in confidential budget. His office has also lost a substantial amount in travel and hospitality.
National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah told Nation that Mr Gachagua had crossed the red line. He termed his allegations of attempted assassination as outrageous.
He asked the DP to have some self-introspection on whether he still meets the requirements of Chapter 6 of the constitution on leadership and integrity.
“He is out to seek cheap public sympathy. He should read again chapter six on ethics and integrity, and have some introspection,” said Mr Ichung’wah.
Political attack
Kimili MP Didmus Barasa said President Ruto has tried to protect his deputy from any political attack or humiliation, but Mr Gachagua seems to be keen on sinking the Kenya Kwanza administration for his selfish political interest.
He said they would not have any option but to initiate an impeachment motion should the second-in-command continue rocking the boat from within.
“He is just destroying himself. He should not blame anybody. If he does not style up, we will impeach him. We are currently in a political and economic warfare, anyone out to derail us will have to be sacrificed to have the country move forward,” said Mr Barasa.
“We are not interested in humiliating him like Uhuru did to Ruto. But we cannot allow him to sink the government. He is behaving as if he is DP for Mt Kenya. We cannot allow him to reduce the country into a regional affair,” he said.
There is already a scheme to isolate Mr Gachagua within both the executive and the ruling alliance. Top United Democratic Alliance (UDA) politicians, including some of the dismissed but reinstated Cabinet Secretaries (CSs) have openly told off Mr Gachagua against whipping ethnic emotions for his 2027 political ambitions.
Politically persecuted
The onslaught against DP Gachagua by government officials seems to have escalated following a series of warnings by President Ruto against politicians whom he accused of trying to take the country back to “politics of ethnicity and personalities”.
During an interview with Agikuyu vernacular media stations on Sunday, Mr Gachagua painted himself as a man being politically persecuted by the same people he serves within the government. He claimed that an assassin was sent after an officer attached to his office in an attempt to scare him.
"A former NIS officer whom I hired in my office was followed by a motorcycle to my Karen home and was shot and injured in the shoulder but luckily he went to hospital and the bullet was removed," Mr Gachagua said. Further, he claimed that his phone is being tapped in a larger political scheme to tame him politically.
"Every person who I have been calling, our phone conversations are tapped and recorded and then they would ask them what they wanted from me, and I am the Deputy President," he said.
They are trying to sell fear to someone who cannot even be intimidated. They have been used to instigate fear in leaders so that they cannot speak the truth," said Mr Gachagua.
Prof David Monda, a political analyst and university don, said President Ruto has to move with speed and completely isolate Mr Gachagua. He said the President can only do this by bringing ODM leader Raila Odinga and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi closer in the running of government.
“He can also choose to hold the DP in political purgatory. That is to say neither completely sideline the DP nor give him major assignments in effecting government policy. This will keep the DP guessing on the motivations of the president as he will have no idea what cards Ruto will play,” said Prof Monda.
The other option, he said, would be to re-engage the DP by calling off his political attack dogs hounding the DP at the moment.
“This appears to be the least likely option currently as the president has not only entered into a secretive de facto government of national unity with Azimio, but has given Azimio key ministerial dockets, including National Treasury previously held by Prof Njuguna Ndung’u.
