Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has resigned from President William Ruto's United Democratic Alliance (UDA) as he seeks to unveil his party later this week.
Mr Gachagua in a letter to the UDA Secretary General Mr Omar Hassan said his belonging to the party was untenable.
"By a copy of this letter, you are notified that I have officially resigned from the UDA Party with immediate effect," Mr Gachagua wrote.
"I have made this decision in knowledge of the ideals of the Party we believed in and so were millions of Kenyans, but now has turned out as the most dangerous political moment for the people and the Republic of Kenya," he said.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua during UDA's National Governing Council meeting at Bomas of Kenya on September 29, 2023.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
"The party that we founded on principles of good governance, has now turned out to be the worst enemy to the people of the republic of Kenya, to the future of our nation, to the sovereignty of our country, and to the contempt of our constitution."
He said it was his patriotic duty as a Kenyan believing in the rule of law and millions of others who do so, in the sanctity of the constitution, respecting their fore fathers and freedom fighters in the cause for the great nation that he resigned.
"The party has exhausted and wasted a Kenyan moment to take off economically, socially and politically".
Mr Gachagua joined the UDA party in 2020 while still a member of the then ruling Jubilee Party under President Uhuru Kenyatta .
In a repeat of events where President Ruto was Mr Kenyatta's deputy, Mr Gachagua is attempting to kill the UDA as they did then to Jubilee ahead of 2022 General Elections, now eye being on 2027.
Mr Gachagua has since vowed to push for a historic moment of making President Ruto a one term president , directed Mt Kenya people who gave the head of state 47 percent of his power to severe ties with everything to do with incumbent's reelection.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua (centre) with other political leaders when he hosted them at his Wamunyoro home in Nyeri County on May 4, 2025.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Though president Ruto's allies laughed off Mr Gachagua's move as political drama that seeks to create a storm in a teacup, Mr Gachagua said President Ruto has become a nightmare to the livelihoods of his subjects and a liability to the aspirations of the country.
"Mr Gachagua is nowadays treating us to too much drama. He is engaging in political shenanigans of very ridiculous horizons. While not hoping from one platform to the other pouring tribal vitriol, he is spreading very awkward political propaganda while defaming all and sundry," said Kapseret MP Mr Oscar Sudi.
Mr Sudi said Mr Gachagua besides going against his lifetime oath of secrecy is now trying to launder himself to remove the stains of impeachment and removal as UDA Deputy Party leader.
Mr Gachagua was impeached in October last year and was later removed as Deputy Party leader and replaced with Prof Kithure Kindiki in both positions.
"As a man risking getting barred to hold public office for two decades, impeached and removed as our party leader means he got no basis to announce his exit in such a dramatic manner since after all he was not our member," Mr Sudi said.
But Kirinyaga woman Rep Ms Njeri Maina said "by the power of the recent Court of Appeal ruling, there is no evidence that Mr Gachagua is not the legally recognized Deputy President hence no grounds to argue that he is not the UDA Deputy Party leader."
"Mr Gachagua's letter of resignation is a big political statement and sinks the UDA party and the presidency further into a crisis," Ms Maina said.
She said the president is now mired into many legal gaps starting from who is his deputy principal assistant, who is Deputy Party leader and which side of the national assembly is the majority.
President William Ruto (right), Kakamega Senator Bonny Khalwale and former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua at the Bomas of Kenya during the UDA National Governing Council meeting on September 29, 2023.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
As the debate raged, Mr Gachagua said that he no longer willed to be party to a political vehicle that stands stalled in pursuit of pre-election ideals.
"It must be remembered that while affirming the Kenya Kwanza Manifesto, our Presidential Candidate--Dr Ruto--then (in 2022), said, it was his firm conviction that the unity, stability and prosperity of our country lies not in the greatness of men but in the strength of our institutions," Mr Gachagua said.
He said UDA party is founded on the ideology that "the national aspirations - justice, peace, freedom, prosperity that we pray for, as we sing our national anthem, is a covenant that binds us to political inclusion and economic empowerment of all Kenyans."
"No nation can be built on a litany of lies," he said.
He said the Ruto administration had given beautiful promises that notably sought to respect the sovereignity of the people but currently the government has become a chronology of sinusoidal malignancy.
Highlighting the lies that he said has become the face of President Ruto rule, he said the bottom up economic transformation agenda tops.
"We promised to lift Kenyans from the bottom of the economic pyramid; this was an inclusive economic model that millions of Kenyans believed in," he said.
"We signed economic charters with all the counties and various professional bodies. It is, however, disturbing that the Kenya Kwanza rogue Administration is still searching for these charters in their dusty shelves," he added.
President William Ruto and his former deputy Rigathi Gachagua share a light moment during a Kenya Kwanza campaign rally at Karatina town on May 21, 2022.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
He said the Hustler Fund that was promised by the Ruto administration in the belief that it would lift Kenyans at the bottom of the economic pyramid has turned out to be an illusion.
He accused President Ruto and the ruling party of reneging on economic moment in five key sectors namely agriculture, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) economy, housing and settlement, healthcare and digital superhighway and creative economy.
"The above sectors are now a centre of crime with no tangible gains to the people of Kenya," he said.
Mr Gachagua said UDA as a ruling party has failed to make the country food sufficient and make all farmers happy.
"We had promised the country an increased foreign exchange, job creation, lower cost of living and food security; through this we are being treated to no fertilizer for farmers, and grabbing of agricultural land by the powerful," he said.
He added that he cannot be part of a political party that lied it would turn the housing challenge into an economic opportunity and employ over 100,000 young graduates from TVETS into the sector by building 250,000 houses every year.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua (front, second left) with other opposition leaders when they met in Nairobi.
Photo credit: Pool
"Unfortunately, this has become an individual business venture and a sharp sword on the payslip of the Kenyan worker. Our commitment was to grow mortgages from 30,000 to 100,000. Where the UDA brigade is on this matter, it is Kenyans being auctioned by commercial institutions," he said.
He said the healthcare sector has collapsed through introduction of dysfunction Social Health Authority.
Economically, he said the country has become a begging nation; borrowing recklessly for budgeted corruption.
"No country can progress under the leadership of such a political party hidden and mischievous philosophy," he said.
He added that the UDA party also lied that it would "reduce the cost of calls and data to allow wananchi, and especially the youth, to use online platforms for entertainment, information and business."
He said the party has also failed to rejuvenate sports regime in Kenya, failed to reduce toxic emissions by 32 per cent by 2030, instead lying that it would plant 15 billion trees. He said the tree planting slogan is an international Corruption Scandal whose Chief Architect is well known to the Kenyan people.
He said the party has neglected the education sector by a fallacious CBC system and incoherent and corrupt university funding model.
People’s Liberation Party (PLP) leader Martha Karua (center) with opposition leaders (from left) Eugene Wamalwa (DAP-K), Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper Party), Dorothy Semu (ACT Wazalendo party) and Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua during PLP's launch in Nairobi on February 27, 2025.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
He also said that the government lied about providing free sanitary towels in all schools and public washrooms.
"The regime is only meting violence on women and abducting and killing their children while arbitrarily detaining others. School going children including Secondary School Girls cannot be allowed to express themselves without being subjected to police brutality," he said.
He said the country has degenerated into a governance of constitutional coup "where this regime remains unmatched since antiquity".
"We had a commitment to make Kenya a respected and a valued country abroad by promoting friendly relations with our neighbors but besides undermining devolution, we are now embroiled in conflicts and international shame with our friendly nations due to bad diplomacy," he said.
