Gachagua’s ‘Stakeholder Remark’ Cannot Be Used As A Ground Of Impeaching Him
The Mt Kenya Times 
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- We ask them to first drop the arms. If they agree, we are ready to engage them in a structured and constructive dialogue. Together, we will craft a roadmap on how we will help our people.
- Given this background, one thing is clear. DP Gachagua was just doing his job. Constitutionally, he is the principal assistant to the President. During that time I wrote an article in this column.
- These were my observations. Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition leader Raila Odinga and a section of his brigade were leading the onslaught against Gachagua.
- This is because the DP has remained firm and steadfast in his defense and support of President William Ruto. This showed he understood his job very well.
The latest media reports indicate that plans were underway to impeach the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
I have been perusing and analysing the grounds being cited by his critics and my considered view is that they do not meet the requisite legal threshold.
The main ground is that he had likened Kenya to a shareholding company. Therefore, he does not deserve to hold the position of DP because this cast him as a tribal kingpin who does not believe in the concept of building one Kenya, one people.
To me, Gachagua’s remarks had been blown out of proportion.
At no time did he explicitly stated that Kenya belongs to two communities-Kikuyu and Kalinjin.
It is worth noting that the DP spoke at a time when ODM leader Raila Odinga was leading demonstrations in the country. These protests always turned chaotic, bloody and destructive.
Therefore, the position of DP remained clear. As a government, we find it hard to work with people hellbent on plunging Kenya into anarchy and mayhem.
This position at the time resonated well with President William Ruto and his top allies.
In a number of occasions, the President also come out gun blazing.
He would describe Raila and his brigade as economic saboteurs.
We will not allow them to destroy this country. For now, there is nothing we can do with them.
We ask them to first drop the arms. If they agree, we are ready to engage them in a structured and constructive dialogue. Together, we will craft a roadmap on how we will help our people.
Given this background, one thing is clear. DP Gachagua was just doing his job. Constitutionally, he is the principal assistant to the President.
During that time I wrote an article in this column.
These were my observations. Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition leader Raila Odinga and a section of his brigade were leading the onslaught against Gachagua.
This is because the DP has remained firm and steadfast in his defense and support of President William Ruto. This showed he understood his job very well.
As the protests continued, Gachagua kept reiterating that they knew the agenda of Raila Odinga. He was out to blackmail and intimidate President Ruto to share the government with him.
We know he succeeded to arm-twist President Mwai Kibaki and his successor Uhuru Kenyatta.
He thinks President Ruto will cave in to his political machinations.
Raila would want this to be seen as major breakthrough in ending a ‘major political crisis’ that was engulfing our country. We now have a deal. We have signed a ceasefire. This means no more lives would be lost.
Gachagua would aver. This Mzee developed a bad habit. Every time he loses the election he demands a ‘nusu mkate’. We want to tell him this business is now over.
Raila should accept that we defeated him in broad day light. Our victory was reaffirmed and upheld by the Supreme Court of Kenya.
The people of Kenya spoke at the ballot. He cannot change this. He should stick to his lane as an opposition leader.
It is worth noting that Raila and his brigade are currently taking advantage of the recent comments made by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and Trade, Investment and Industry Moses Kuria.
The two Kenya Kwanza leaders were quoted as saying that all Kenyans were stakeholders in a company called Kenya.
I never heard any one of them mentioning the name of DP Gachagua. How did the critics knew that they were targeting him?
To me, Gachagua has been speaking the same language as Mudavadi and Kuria. The only difference is how each package and communicate this message.
We have been listening to the tone and remarks of leaders of the Mulembe nation whenever they host President William Ruto in their region.
Led by Mudavadi, they would mince no word reminding him about the votes he got there and the pre-election pledges he made.
As a Luhya community, we believe we have a bigger stake in your government.
The point is clear when you talk about a big stake. You are saying you have many shares and hence consider yourselves as major shareholder.
In his recent visit, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated that they lobbied the President to consider passing the baton of power to a candidate from the Mulembe nation when he concludes his two- five year term in 2032.
The President avoided this issue and instead called on Western leaders to focus on fulfilling the pledges they made to electorates during the campaigns.
By virtues of being the second in command, DP Gachagua have a head start in the race to succeed President Ruto. The other advantage is that the DP is a son of the most popular community and biggest voting bloc in Kenya.
For Kuria, he has been projecting his community of Kikuyu as a major shareholder.
I’m sure many Kenyans would recall why he fell out with President Uhuru Kenyatta. It is because he believed that Kikuyus were only being used as a voting machines during the elections.
When it comes to the sharing of the national cake, they would not get thier share. The cake would instead be shared by people from other regions who had not voted for President Kenyatta.
Gachagua also made his ‘stakeholder remark’ at a time when the mainstream media was leaning towards Azimio leader Raila Odinga.
In apparent reference to coalition leader, he would say. “We know some of you in media circles are championing the agenda of this Mzee. Stop wasting your time. Tell him the truth. We defeated him. He cannot change the will of the People”.
One year since President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua assumed office, the Azimio leader, his running Martha Karua and some of the coalition’s hardliners were yet to come to terms with this loss.
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 commends the IEBC for doing a good job, 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 hit out at observers claiming their respective reports did not reflect the will of Kenyan people.
The President-elect had compromised and pocketed them, the same way he has done to the judges of Supreme Court and IEBC chairman. He would make the claims without providing an iota of truth.
In the aftermath of 2007, 2013 and 2017 presidential elections, Raila had made similar unsubstantiated and highly libelous claims.
Since then, Raila’s bid is a two-pronged. First, put Gachagua into a collision course with Kenyans. Kenyans are not stupid. They know how to read between the lines.
The other one is to create a rift between him and his boss, President William Ruto.
With time, he think that President Ruto might be persuaded to believe that Gachagua was rocking the boat from within. This is a wishful thinking.
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 were drawn from his community of Luo.
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
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