Gachagua’s Critics Continue To Blow Out Of Proportion the ‘Stakeholders’ Comment

By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga

Worth Noting:

• In apparent reference to Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition leader Raila Odinga, he would say. “We know some of you are championing the agenda of this Mzee. Stop wasting your time. Tell him the truth. We defeated him in broad day light. He cannot change the will of the People”.
• The outcome met the threshold of free, credible and verifiable presidential polls. We commend the IEBC for this, some stated in their reports.
• The US government, European Union and African Union are among the community of nations that had sent their observers.
• The Azimio leader would not wait for the dust to settle. He would allege that the observers’ reports did not reflect the will of Kenyans.

Sometimes back, the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was quoted in a section of the media as likening the Kenya Kwanza government to a Company.

This came at a time when he was engaging these media houses in no-hold-barred attacks.

In apparent reference to Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition leader Raila Odinga, he would say.  “We know some of you are championing the agenda of this Mzee. Stop wasting your time. Tell him the truth. We defeated him in broad day light. He cannot change the will of the People”.

Eight months since President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua assumed office, one thing has remained clear.

The Azimio leader, his running Martha Karua and some of the coalition’s hardliners were yet to come to terms with this loss.

They still continue to insist that they had won the polls.

To me, this is laughable. Let me explain why? After the IEBC concluded the excercise of counting and tallying the presidential votes at the Bomas of Kenya, the commission chairman stepped out to release the final results and declared Dr William Ruto as the winner.

Raila immediately contested the outcome and announced that he was going to file a petition at the Supreme Court of Kenya to challenge Mr Ruto’s victory.

As many Kenyans predicted in the eve and during the hearing, he did not have his way.

The bench of seven judges, in a unanimous decision, dismissed the petition.

To arrive at this verdict, they made the following observations.

The case had been built on a quick sand and shaky ground.

It was nothing but a cocktail of propaganda, vendetta, outright lies and half-truth.

Therefore, the case fell far short of meeting the requisite thresholds.

The local and international election observers had also given the elections a clean bill of health.

The outcome met the threshold of free, credible and verifiable presidential polls.  We commend the IEBC for this, some stated in their reports.

The US government, European Union and African Union are among the community of nations that had sent their observers.

The Azimio leader would not wait for the dust to settle. He would allege that the observers’ reports did not reflect the will of Kenyans.

The President-elect had compromised and pocketed them, the same way he has done to the judges of Supreme Court and IEBC chairman.

This is not the first time Raila would resort to making these kinds of unsubstantiated, unproven and highly libelous claims.

He had read the same script after losing the elections held in 2007, 2013 and 2017 respectively.

That time he had his way. He managed to blackmail and arm-twists Presidents Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta to share the government with him.

This time, it has dawned on him that the going is tough. He stood a little or no  chance of bulldozing his way to the high table.

To Raila, DP Gachagua stood out as the key stumbling block.

We recall that during his anti-Ruto demonstrations, Raila felt so much offended by comments attributed to Gachagua.

The DP would tell him point blank. We know what you want. You are looking for a ‘Nusu Mkate’. Forget it. This will never happen.

During the era of President Uhuru Kenyatta, you succeeded. This is because you were dealing with a person brought up by Cerelac.

For us, we are different. President William Ruto was brought up by Muliziki (sour milk) and myself I was brought up by arrow roots.

Given this scenerio, I’m sure many would agree with me. For Raila, Gachagua was his main target.

Raila’s strategy to bring him down is two-pronged: To put him into a collision course with Kenyans.

The other one is to create a rift between him and his boss, President William Ruto.

This explains why he still considers Gachagua’s ‘stakeholder’ comment as a strong political bonga point.

With time, he thinks that President Ruto might be persuaded to believe that Gachagua was rocking the boat from within.

His remarks were too costly. They were allegedly making many Kenyans lose faith and trust of the government.

Dr Ruto is a political genius and so you would not expect him to fall prey to Raila tricks.

To me, this is the message he sent to him during the burial of freedom fighter Makami Kimathi.

The President told him. I know you very well. Even as for the demonstrations,  I know why  you are holding them and what you want.

At this juncture, allow me to say this.

A precedent set in our country is that the communities that support the candidate who wins the presidential elections get a lion share of government positions.  This is the script that the successive governments of independent Kenya would read.

It seems this is the point that Gachagua was putting across.

The only difference is that he comes out full blown. If he could have avoided the word ‘stakeholder’ and use another word that pass the same message, Raila and his brigade could not have gotten the political fodder to fight him.

Raila should have been the last person to attack Gachagua. Why? When he served as a Prime Minister in Grand Coalition Government, majority of those who worked in his office hailed from his Luo community.

At the time, I used to work with a Nairobi based Youth NGO. As an organization, there is an issue we were following up there. So I made several visits to this office.

Earlier, the story was the same when he served as a minister for Public Works.

The other day I heard a group of people saying. Raila has not changed. If you want to know this, just visit his Capitol Hill Office and ODM Secretariat. You will realize he is still a tribal kingpin.

Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi