If perception were to be applied in choosing the Deputy President in the August 9 General Election, Mr Rigathi Gachagua would have failed.
For a man whose nomination by United Democratic Alliance (UDA) presidential flagbearer William Ruto came with so much conflict in the Mt Kenya region, it was impressive how he shrugged off the setbacks and soldiered on to emerge victorious. The 57-year-old Mathira MP is just days away from becoming the second most powerful Kenyan.
During his stint in Parliament, Mr Gachagua is not accredited with sponsoring any Bill that sought to empower Mt Kenya residents but, on the campiagn trail, he packaged himself as a champion for the region’s rights.
To many, Mr Gachagua, the eighth-born in a family of nine children born to Nahashon Gachagua Reriani and Martha Kirigo, was being propelled to national limelight by Dr Ruto for reasons that had nothing to do with merit, in the process threatening to divide the Mt Kenya vote.
Former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo made it his business to besmirch Mr Gachagua in the eyes of Kenyans. Mr Kabogo claimed Mr Gachagua was forced on Mt Kenya at the expense of Tharaka Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki.
Mr Gachagua who is married to Mathira-based pastor Dorcas Wanjiku and is a father of two grown up sons, appeared to be Dr Ruto’s right-hand man in the task of tackling President Uhuru Kenyatta’s influence in the region.
“Those of us experienced in these things knew that Dr Ruto needed someone who could stand up against Mr Kenyatta, someone who understood how the president’s mind worked, someone who could convert the Mt Kenya voters into a movement and who had the finances and couldn’t be bought to betray his candidate,” says career administrator Joseph Kaguthi, who’s known Mr Gachagua since his time as a district officer in the Kanu government.
“I knew him to be an organiser who was quick to read the mobs … a man who could articulate policy to win public support,” Mr Kaguthi says. Owing to the negative energy that his naming as running mate elicited, Kenyans appeared unanimous that he would do badly in the public debate with his Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party rival Martha Karua. But he emerged from the debate shining.
“He knows how to cut through arguments and come up with counter-logic and that is the charm he unleashed on Karua to a point all independent analysts gave him a 70 per cent rating,” says National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi.
It is from the debate that Kenyans came to realise that Mr Gachagua had in 1985 joined the University of Nairobi, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Literature in 1988. At the university, Mr Gachagua was the Nyeri District University Students Association leader as well as the chairman of the Association of Literature Students. Two weeks to the election, Mr Gachagua suffered a major setback when the court ruled that he should forfeit the Sh203 million in the frozen account to the state since he could not prove that he had not acquired it illegally.
To critics, the ruling proved that Mr Gachagua was a political liability. But he weathered the storm. Mr Gachagua went to Kabiruini Primary School from 1971 to 1977 before proceeding to Kianyaga High School for his O-levels and A-levels. He also pursued an advanced public administration at the Kenya School of Government between 1999 and 2000.
After graduating from university in 1988, Mr Gachagua worked at the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Heritage before joining the Administration Police Institute in 1990. After graduating, he was posted to the Office of the President where he was designated as a district officer cadet between 1991 and 1992.
He served as a district officer in Kakamega, Ng’arua and Laikipia. Between 1999 and 2000, he joined Kenya School of Government where he graduated with a diploma in advanced public administration. Between 2001 and 2006, Mr Gachagua worked as personal assistant to Mr Kenyatta. From 2007 to 2017, Mr Gachagua was running various businesses before he contested the Mathira seat in 2017 and won.
