By Joseph Muia
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has rubbished claims that he is a tribal leader, instead accusing President William Ruto of orchestrating a negative narrative against him after their bitter political fallout.
Speaking during an exclusive interview on Citizen TV’s The Explainer Show last night, Gachagua said his former boss was keen on creating narratives to suit political convenience.
He also referred to his once close allies turned foes, alleging that Ruto’s close allies have been instrumental in perpetuating the “tribalist” narrative as a way to sideline him politically.
“Narratives are created in this country and my former Boss, William Ruto, is a master of narratives; he is very good. When you are friends, he says so many nice things about you and when he and I were getting along, when I was helping him to be president, he had very kind words about Rigathi Gachagua; a great mobiliser, a people’s man, a great strategist, a man who loves and cares about people’s issues…” he stated.
“…But the minute we fell out, he labelled me as a tribalist. It is something that he has been preaching in every meeting so that he can justify to Kenyans why, after I helped to make him President, he hounded me out of office.”
Citing the 2022 General Election, Gachagua defended his track record, saying his political choices went against tribal considerations.
Gachagua who was impeached last year by the Kenya Kwanza outfit, insisted he has always been a nationalist who has never spoken ill of other communities.
“The man before you is a great nationalist, who loves Kenya, who has never uttered something negative about another community. He loves his community, yes, but that does not mean he hates other communities,” he stated.
“If you want to know, I am a nationalist, against all odds, when Uhuru Kenyatta wanted me to support Raila Odinga, and he is my kinsman, had I been tribal, I would have listened to Uhuru. I went ahead to support Ruto.”
Turning his guns on Ruto’s Rift Valley backyard, Gachagua questioned the region’s voting patterns in 2022, instead throwing the tribal card to his former boss.
“When I supported Ruto, I knew he was not a Kikuyu or Meru, but a Kalenjin, and still I together with my community supported him, in fact, we gave him 87% of our votes and the other 13%, there was another candidate (David Mwaure), a Kikuyu, we didn’t give him but we gave it to Raila, a Luo. That tells you that my people and I are not tribal,” he explained.
“William Ruto and his community, how many votes did they give to Raila? None. All their votes went to their kinsman (Ruto),” he said.
At the same time, the outspoken DCP leader dared the president and his allies to produce evidence of him ever making derogatory remarks against other ethnic groups.
“I would like to challenge William Ruto and his cronies to produce a single video of me making negative remarks against another tribe,” he stated.
During the debate, Gchagua discussed various ranging issues.
He said the opposition need to produce one candidate to face William Ruto adding that he will be persuading his colleagues that they publicly sign a pact with the people of Kenya, committing that each one of us will support whoever is picked and none of us will go astray.
“Whoever goes astray will be a traitor to the Kenyan cause. I believe I am the candidate,” he said.
Asked whether he was not angry and only interested in revenge, he retorted, “I don’t think stopping abductions is revenge; I think it is the right thing. I am not interested in any revenge; I am interested in good governance. I am not a vengeful person; I have nothing against William Ruto as a person. I have a big problem with killing children, I have a big problem with corruption”, adding, ” It’s not about revenge. I am a courageous leader standing up for the people of Kenya. Raila was compromised, Parliament and Senate have been captured, someone has to stand up and say no.”
He added, “Did you expect William Ruto to give us a hug for wanting to remove him from office? He knows one term is lethal and he is complaining about slogans. His people are trying slogans of two term. For us to stop corruption and theft of public resources, Ruto must leave office. It is not our business to make him happy, we are not in the business of making him comfortable, we should not do what he wants,”
On the recently established IEBC commission, the former DP said, ” I am not very happy with the way the IEBC was picked. I could see there was some consultation between Raila and Ruto, who were on the same side, and therefore, there was no concurrence with other people. I want to assure Kenyans that nobody can steal elections.”
On being asked why he failed to report various allegations against the government to the relevant agencies, he said, ” I cannot report William Ruto to the police, because they are under him, I cannot report the police to themselves. I cannot report Murkomen to the DCI because he is under him. I can only report them to the people of Kenya. The National Police Service is not independent; they are just pretending they are independent and they are not. I told Douglas Kanja that he is a potential customer of ICC. William Ruto and Murkomen will use you, one of these days, he will be in ICC,”
On formation of a team to seek ways of compensating victims of protests, he noted, “It is laughable that the President, ahead of his address to the UN, is going to the United Nations General Assembly, he is trying to appease the international community because there is a lot of concern about extrajudicial killings and abductions. He is trying to hoodwink the international community by ordering Prof Makau Mutua to set up a team to compensate victims of extrajudicial killings and abductions. I think it is good to compensate people, that should be the tail end. The President should call a press conference and say that he accepts there were extrajudicial killings and abductions and he apologizes to the people of Kenya.”
He termed State House as a crime scene saying, “Rigathi Gachagua: State House has become a crime scene. Corruption is being practiced in the highest office of the land in broad daylight. The DP is carrying money in sacks, bribing women and young people to say two-term and then the President is here pretending that he can fight corruption, where does he start?”
