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Purge: How Gachagua associates packed out of office in the dead of the night

Sunday, October 20, 2024

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Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s staff remove furniture from the Senate on October 17, 2024.

Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group

By Justus Wanga

Nation Media Group

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What you need to know:

There were employees who wanted to tempt fate, holding onto to the GK vehicles.
Mr Gachagua, like other elected or appointed top state officials, came in with a coterie of advisers whose contracts are tied to his tenure.

As the country slept on the night of Thursday, October 17, staff of impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua did not have a calm evening.

They had an unusual assignment that kept them awake till the wee hours of Friday morning.

Multiple sources said the workers were instructed to remove personal effects from the Deputy President’s residence in Karen as the Senate went about the motion for his impeachment.

Going by what had transpired at the National Assembly the previous week and with projections in the Senate, they knew their man stood no chance. Panic set in.

Thursday afternoon had its fair share of drama when the hearing of impeachment proceedings of the DP was jolted by his disappearance from the Senate Chambers and later information that he had been hospitalised.

Read: The meteoric rise, and head-first fall, of Rigathi Gachagua

“The Deputy President is here. He came at 3pm. The family is aware I’m talking to you. He came in with chest pains and is undergoing tests. He is stable,” Karen Hospital boss Dr Dan Gikonyo told journalists.

“We will observe him for the next 48 to 72hours.”

The setback delayed proceedings until after 5 pm.

“I was looking forward to cross-examining the Deputy President but it’s unfortunate that he’s not here,” Senior Counsel James Orengo told the House later.

Sources close to Mr Gachagua and staff said after senators voted to impeach him at about 11 pm, the workers began clearing his personal stuff in order to avoid doing so in the morning.

Apart from packing their boss’ belongings, the handlers carted away theirs too. Those assigned government vehicles returned them.

Tempt fate

However, there were employees who wanted to tempt fate, holding onto the GK vehicles.

The Sunday Nation was informed of an operation to find the vehicles on Saturday even as an announcement was made that 108 staff had been sent on compulsory leave.

“I was trailed to my rural home and my official car taken. My driver was also withdrawn without the courtesy of being informed,” a Mr Gachagua aide, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, told the Sunday Nation.

Mr Gachagua, like other elected or appointed top state officials, came in with a coterie of advisers whose contracts are tied to his tenure.

The Sunday Nation learnt that the DP did not have much personal stuff at his office on the second floor of Harambee House Annex or at the official residence in Karen.

Workers at the Karen residence cleared his personal effects, including clothes, until around 2.30 am when the last person left.

Mr Gachagua took long to move to the residence and conduct business there, after taking office in 2022, as it was under renovation.

Even then, he mostly operated from his house nearby.

Read: How Gachagua lawyers cornered prosecution witnesses to unravel charges

Officers of the Presidential Escort Unit at the residence were scaled down following gazettement of Mr Gachagua’s removal from office. Security officers guarding the residence, however, remain.

The security was reinstated when the High Court put on ice the swearing-in of Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki as Mr Gachagua’s replacement.

In a special sitting on Friday, the National Assembly approved President William Ruto’s nomination of the CS.

Most United Democratic Alliance lawmakers wanted Prof Kindiki to be Dr Ruto’s running mate in the 2022 presidential elections but the candidate chose Mr Gachagua, who was the Mathira MP, instead.

A handful of Mr Gachagua’s associates were at the Harambee House Annex on Friday morning for unspecified matters.

Civil servants were busy getting the office ready for the expected change of guard while those hired when Mr Gachagua assumed office carted away personal items.

Some Kenyans joked on social media that “the syllabus was moving fast”.

In keeping with the expiry of their contracts, some 108 employees attached to Mr Gachagua were sent on compulsory leave.

In a memo by Mr Patrick Mwangi, Principal Administrative Secretary in the office of the Deputy President, and copied to Head of Public Service Felix Koskei, officers in Job Groups T and U were instructed to proceed on leave.

It is the same for those serving on contract.

“Heads of Department are directed to designate in writing a responsible officer to be in charge of their respective departments with a copy to the Chief of Staff and the Principal Administrative Secretary,” Mr Mwangi said.

Shake-up

The departmental heads were advised to ensure conformity to the directives by noon on Saturday.

The move by the government is seen in many circles as paving the way for a shake-up in the office of the Deputy President as Prof Kindiki awaits to take the oath of office.

“Following the constitutional process affecting His Excellency the Deputy President, it has been decided as follows; Officers in Job Groups T and U are hereby instructed to proceed on compulsory leave,” reads the letter by Mr Mwangi.

Mr Gachagua’s communication team did not immediately respond to inquiries by the Sunday Nation.

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