It is official. President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua have severed ties and the camaraderie they once enjoyed is dead.
The duo has not been on talking terms since September 1. The straw that broke the camel’s back, The Sunday Standard can reveal, was an encounter at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) when the President was leaving for Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
On that day two events took place but their ripple effect saw the Head of State and the second in command sever ties. Earlier that day Gachagua had attended the Methodist Church of Kenya’s 100th-year anniversary.
In response to the National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah, contention that Mt Kenya was ungrateful despite getting seven slots of Cabinet secretaries as well as the position of the DP as opposed to Nyanza, Gachagua downplayed the claims.
Ichung’wah had made the remarks in Nyanza, in a tour that had been attended by both President Ruto and Gachagua.
The DP fired back, “I saw some debate in Nyanza where some leaders tried to suggest in a very reckless manner that this region has not shown gratitude for the positions that the President has given us in the Cabinet. That is not true.”
He added, “That is trying to abuse our people we have shown the highest form of gratitude to him in the sense that when he supported President Uhuru, when his time came we stood with him. That is the highest form of gratitude the region can give to a leader in this country.”
The DP forged on, “Actually in matters of gratitude it is the other way round. He is the one who owes us gratitude in this region because we have already vindicated ourselves.”
Gachagua said although the region was appreciative of the positions that the President had given Mt Kenya, the region had merited the positions because ‘‘we invested heavily in this government’’.
“President Ruto is the greatest beneficiary of our gratitude and indeed the only leader outside this region since independence. Oginga Odinga helped Kenyatta during the colonialism when he said no freedom without Kenyatta but we never showed him gratitude. Raila supported Mwai Kibaki but we never showed him gratitude, Kalonzo Musyoka supported Kibaki but we never reciprocated but we showed Ruto for supporting Uhuru,” Gachagua said.
This what led to the frosty face-off at JKIA where Ruto, Gachagua and other government top officials met.
According to sources, President Ruto went ballistic against his deputy over his remarks which he had made earlier the day inside the church.
Ruto, sources disclosed, scolded Gachagua over what he termed an uncultured habit of responding to him when he (Gachagua) claimed it was the President who was supposed to be grateful for the people of Mt Kenya region for keeping their word and voting for him as opposed to Raila Odinga, who was former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s favourite Presidential candidate.
Ten minutes
Ruto, sources said, interpreted the remarks as distasteful and disgusting and as a result, scolded his deputy for about ten minutes as other government officials gazed in dumbstruck.
“All this time, Gachagua was silent. After the President was done, Gachagua said ‘‘I can’t respond in the presence of these officers Mr President, have a safe flight,” the source reported the DP saying.
In his tell-all interview on Citizen TV, Gachagua indirectly hinted at the airport incident where he claimed that a senior person whom he did not mention called him stupid at the airport.
“In fact another day a senior person abused me at the airport and called me stupid five times. I was very bitter, and I thought probably he was right. I think I was stupid to fight my own brother, my kinsman, my confidant, for no good reason, for saying another person is a good man. I really regret what I did, and my community does regret, and we are very apologetic to the Kenyatta family, and what happens in my community is the saying that making a mistake is not bad, but repeating is unforgivable,” he said.
He said he felt bad that he was so brutal on Uhuru who he described as once his great friend, confidant brother and kinsman given that his only crime was saying Raila was a good man ‘and then I said, we don’t want Raila Odinga, we want William Ruto. Then Ruto comes and says the Raila is a good man. I felt very stupid.
Immediately after the airport incident, Gachagua was removed from a WhatsApp group diary where senior government officials interacted and planned State affairs.
“I always align my diary with that of the President, and as long as I’m aware of that function, I align accordingly. Sometimes if I’m not aware, I’m unable to align because I also have my programme,” he added.
He accused some State House operatives of being mischievous claiming he had been working hard to create a wedge between him and his boss.
“Sometimes they want me to get late so that it appears disrespectful. I want to ask the people who work around the presidency not to create conflict between the President and me. I’m the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya elected by the people and the Principal Assistant,” Gachagua added.
In a rejoinder Head of Creative Economy and Special Projects in the Office of the President, Dennis Itumbi dismissed Gachagua’s claims claiming the WhatsApp group was deleted.
Classified documents
“Yes, the diary group was deleted. What DP @rigathi fails to mention is that the President was removed even before him, and the group was permanently deleted due to the highly classified documents being shared in WhatsApp groups,” Itumbi said.
Murang’a Woman Rep Betty Maina claimed she had advised Gachagua not to attack the President but he dismissed her.
“The last meeting I held with Gachagua I told him to ignore some issues and focus on the God-given position of a Deputy President and enjoy it rather than focus on the few challenges. I cautioned him against openly fighting the President, he would not win, he would only diminish his chances for 2027,” she said.
Since the airport encounter, the two have never met or talked to each other and that is when and how efforts to install Interior and Coordination of National Government Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki as Mt Kenya region’s kingpin started taking shape, with 48 MPs, a faction of MCAs and the Nchuri Ncheke elders endorsing their son as their spokesperson.
The President and Gachagua’s relationship was first affected when a section of leaders allied to the President fronted Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro as Gachagua’s best replacement for 2027 but the two reconciled in a meeting held at State House after Ruto urged his allies to go slow on the succession politics.
In yet another revelation that all was not well with his boss, Gachagua in a direct address to Ruto asking him to be the gentleman he promised to be when he committed that he would never subject his deputy to coercion, humiliation and persecution.
“Today, the Deputy President is abused by people, hanging on his car, and the President is quiet. Cabinet ministers have been abusing the Deputy President, the president is quiet. The President has given many promises to the people of Kenya.”
But there’s one promises he gave to the people of Kenya that requires no finance, it requires nothing, it requires him to be a gentleman and keep that promise, the promise he gave the people of Kenya, that under his presidency, his deputy will not be abused, disrespected, intimidated, persecuted and harassed,” he said.
According to Gachagua, the current political situation was the country’s lowest political moment even as he disclosed that his family was devastated that their father, who went out of his way to support the President, was being persecuted.
“And I say, even if there is a jinx around this position, at least President William Ruto was allowed to do his work for five years, without interruption, without harassment, for five years. I’ve only done one year. And what is happening to me is worse than what happened to President William Ruto. I ask President William Ruto, please allow me to work,” he said.
He said by Ruto honouring his commitment he could win the trust of the people of Kenya as an honest person who keeps his promise.
