The explosive revelations by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua of his frustrations in the hands of powerful individuals around President William Ruto has triggered a major political storm that poses a threat to the stability of Kenya Kwanza administration.
Mr Gachagua in a televised interview on Friday lamented how he is being sabotaged from discharging his mandate, including by being blocked from accessing the President's diary. He also talked about plans to impeach him, alleging late-night meetings and bribery to have MPs introduce his impeachment in Parliament.
On Friday night, September 20, Mr Gachagua was conspicuously absent when other top government officials saw off President Ruto as he left for New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
“Even if there is a jinx around this position at least President Ruto was allowed to do his job for five years without interruption or harassment. I’ve only done one year and what is happening to me is worse than what happened to Ruto. I ask President William Ruto to please allow me to work for the next three years. Let me serve the people of Kenya. What is happening is not right,” Mr Gachagua told Citizen TV.
The disclosure of the escalating political divorce between the two politicians, who swept to power by playing victim to political persecution by former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration, has since split the political class, with critics of Mr Gachagua accusing the second-in-command of engaging in political blackmail.
The DP’s loyalists have, however, sympathized with him while accusing the President of political persecution.
"I have never seen a wing of government that is so determined to set its house ablaze on grounds that there are tenants who it does not like. They want to burn themselves alive on grounds that they don't like Gachagua...for that reason, they set our house ablaze and have us all including themselves burn alive," said former Laikipia Woman Representative Cate Waruguru.
“Persecuting Gachagua is a direct declaration of political war with Mt Kenya region. They can live in denial but it is up to them, the choice is theirs,” she added.
But National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah, a close ally of President Ruto, accused Mr Gachagua of blackmailing the President for selfish political interests.
Mr Ichung’wah said Mr Gachagua was out to cause political stability that has the potential of frustrating the President’s development agenda.
“It is about creating political instability like June 25th…in an attempt to blackmail the people, government of Kenya and the President. This is what all the incitement around one region is about,” Mr Ichung’wah said on his X account.
Mr Ichung'wah insisted that Mr Gachagua is playing the victim for political expediency when he is the aggressor.
"This is the same man who has been threatening some of junior president Ruto's workers with physical assault at state lodges, one who demands kickbacks from coffee brokers and blackmailing the president by playing the tribal card..." said the Kikuyu MP on Inooro TV.
“When we are working hard to unite and serve the country from a point of inclusivity another one is busy grouping his tribe into a causeless drive apart from enriching himself and advancing own ambitions,” he claimed.
President Ruto's United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Secretary General Mr Omar Hassan had earlier told Nation.Africa that Mr Gachagua was a victim of his own miscalculations to the point of encouraging people to isolate him.
"He believes in politics of gatekeeping, co-presidency, isolationist and self-serving...contradicting the manner in which the constitution demands of the presidency must at all times unite all under one flag," he said.
Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa said they do not need to be paid to impeach Mr Gachagua. He said Parliament remains independent, stating that if need be they will impeach the DP as a matter of duty.
This even as the Raila Odinga-led ODM party condemned the DP for taking more than two and half hours on TV “to rant about personal issues he has with the President William Ruto” instead of addressing pressing national issues.
ODM national chairperson Gladys Wanga and Secretary for Political Affairs Rozah Buyu asserted that the country is grappling with a myriad of challenges among them harsh economic times, unemployment, an uncertain education and health sectors, things that the Deputy President should be concerning himself with, they said.
“My reading of this very bitter rant by Mr Gachagua is that he had come out well in advance informing Kenyans that only ‘shareholders’ will benefit from President Ruto’s government but now it is emerging that other people who are considered non-shareholders are participating in this company called Kenya, as it should be,” said Ms Wanga in a joint presser in Kisumu.
On the alleged plans to impeach Mr Gachagua, the ODM governor said the party was not aware of such a motion.
“However, any member of parliament can bring any motion and when it comes the Parliamentary Group will sit and deal with it. For now, we do not want to anticipate things we have no knowledge about,” said Ms Wanga.
Separately, on whether the ODM was accused of being part of the scheme to provide a swing vote to impeach Gachagua or to partner with him in 2027, Secretary General Edwin Sifuna harshly dismissed it.
"No one in their sane mind can be discussing 2027 this early in 2024. We have serious problems to address as a country and cannot just be thinking about elections all the time...I mean anyone talking about 2027, including you (can only be insane)," Mr Sifuna responded through a short message.
Jubilee Party Secretary General Mr Jeremiah Kioni told Nation that "the wing of Azimio coalition that is not supporting Dr William Ruto presidency will not support Gachagua impeachment should it be tabled in parliament".
He said, "Our members in Jubilee Party, DAP-Kenya, Kanu, Wiper Party...and those in Mr Odinga's camp who did not support the formation of a broad based government will gang up against any move to impeach him".
Mr Kioni said, "The only motion that we will support is that which starts with the impeachment of President Ruto".
“There is no motion of impeachment against the deputy president that can find itself on the floor of the house unless the President gives a node. Nobody else has the capacity to push it apart from the President,” said Mr Gachagua.
Murang'a Senator Joe Nyutu, an ally of Mr Gachagua said "we need to approach this issue from a point of reason, honesty, goodwill and integrity".
He said, "Mr Gachagua is being fought only because he has refused to abandon his people and demand that they be respected for the part they played in founding and assembling President Ruto's rule".
He said, "We will continue to remain steadfast in demanding that Mt Kenya be left to unite and those others to go and unite their regions so that we congregate together and unite Kenya".
He said, "Mt Kenya will not buy that fear of thinking awkwardly that the African Union is good, the United States of America is a good thing...but United Mt Kenya is bad".
Mr Nyutu said, "This habit of political deceit that seeks to kill healthy debates like one man one shilling one vote and the future of a region is part of a Kenya we do not want".
Another ally of the DP, Embakasi North MP James Gakuya said "Mr Gachagua has not even revealed all, he was lenient enough not to reveal exactly the level at which the Mountain is being trashed in this administration".
Mr Gakuya said it has reached a point where there is a total collapse of communications forcing Gachagua's loyalists to express themselves to the president through the media and the courts.
"It tells you that it appears that the mountain must be leaderless and voiceless. They do not want a mountain that has a centre of command, they want us dispersed and it is not hard to know who wants to achieve an edge of benefit when we are divided," he said.
Kikuyu Council of Elders through their chairman Mr Wachira Kiago says "Gachagua's lamentations are a community issue and when the overall leader cries out, an urgent mobilisation of defence must be put in place," he told Nation.Africa.
Mr Kiago said, "We listened to Mr Gachagua make his submission and clearly, all is not well in the government structure vis-a-vis Mt Kenya interests".
The Kiama Kia Ma vice chairman Mr Njoroge Mugo said "it is urgent that we now come out from the shadows of tactical silence to speak out against the obvious acts of aggression against critical community interests".
Mr Mugo said, "This community has 87 percent of its votes inside that government led by President Ruto and 47 percent of its authority is drawn from the Mountain alone".
Mr Mugo added that "the recent inclusion of Mr Raila Odinga men into government means that a further percentage of the 13 percent of Mountain people who had voted for the opposition chief in 2022, by extension have joined the Ruto administration".
Former Bahati MP Mr Kimani Ngunjiri said "we will get an appointment from Mr Kenyatta, we get a prized goat and together we eat as we prosecute our case against this administration and eventually request him to issue a directive as our king".
Reporting by Mwangi Muiruri, Moses Nyamori and Rushdie Oudia
