President William Ruto and then Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu at State House on August 1, 2023.
Former Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has broken his silence on how he feels about his former boss, President William Ruto, coming almost a year after left the Executive. He has also spoken on the circumstances surrounding his dismissal from government, laying bare what he believes led to his unceremonious exit.
Mr Machogu, who vied unsuccessfully for the Kisii gubernatorial seat in the 2022 General Election, was among high-ranking figures in the Kenya Kwanza administration who failed to make a return to government following the 2024 Gen Z protests.
After a year of quiet contemplation, the former Nyaribari Masaba Member of Parliament (MP) has emerged to accuse Nyaribari Chache MP Zaheer Jhanda and his South Mugirango counterpart Silvanus Osoro of orchestrating his removal from office, while also calling out President Ruto for unfulfilled commitments and stalling projects.
“I pushed for the establishment of Nyamira University only for certain leaders to sabotage the process. Did the President not come to Kiabonyoru in Nyamira and pledge Sh500 million for the university’s construction? Have you seen that money?” he asked Monday at the burial of Esther Kemunto, the mother of former Nyaribari Chache MP Richard Nyagaka Tong’i.
Branding President Ruto a habitual deceiver, Mr Machogu then proclaimed that he had officially joined the Opposition-aligned "Wantam" movement. He predicted that Dr Ruto’s days in office were numbered.
“The wheelbarrow is no longer moving. I was its face in Gusii, but I have now walked away. That wheelbarrow is broken, it’s nothing more than scrap,” he said.
President William Ruto and then Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu at State House on August 1, 2023.
“When we spoke of bottom-up, did we mean handing you peanuts and calling it empowerment? Are you worth just Sh64? Isn’t that an insult to your dignity?”
'Betrayal'
Mr Machogu vowed to lead a campaign to deny MPs Jhanda and Osoro re-election, accusing them of betrayal and opportunism.
"Led by someone from South Mugirango (Osoro) and this one here (Zaheer), they plotted my downfall. The MP here is not one of us. If he were a true son of Nyaribari, he would have stood up for me," Mr Machogu declared while addressing mourners.
Former Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu.
At another funeral held last week in Nyamira County, the former Cabinet Secretary alleged that both MPs, key allies of President Ruto, had sought personal favours from him during his tenure at the Ministry of Education.
When he refused to bend the rules for them, he claims, they retaliated.
“When I was at the helm of the Education Ministry, certain MPs from this region turned against me because I denied them access to government contracts. I told them clearly: Machogu doesn’t believe in shortcuts. They were not pleased with that response, and they moved to engineer my ouster,” he claimed at Menyenya Primary School during the burial of Catherine Nyamato, the first woman from the Gusii region to be nominated to the National Assembly.
MPs respond
In response, Jhanda and Osoro dismissed Machogu’s claims, attributing his sacking to what they termed as his own failures in office.
“I did not sack him, the President did. He knows why he was shown the door,” Mr Jhanda told residents of Nyabiuto on Monday, shortly after a tense exchange with Machogu in Amariba.
Mr Machogu also used the Nyamira funeral as a platform to launch a stinging critique of the Kenya Kwanza government, accusing it of reneging on its promises to the people of Gusii.
He then urged the Gusii community to rally behind former Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i, who has expressed interest in contesting the presidency in 2027.
“We now have our own son, Dr Fred Matiang’i. Let us unite behind him. We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past. We are already in talks with Professor Sam Ongeri, and we are committed to bringing our people together,” Machogu said.
