Gachagua bombshell: 'The Plan' has failed, Ruto has broken all promises

Democracy for Citizen Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua when he read out President Ruto’s four-year score card during a media briefing at the party’s offices in Nairobi on August 11, 2026. [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard]

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has accused President William Ruto of going against the very promises he made to Kenyans as he sought office.

Instead, Gachagua claimed the President had presided over human rights violations, corruption, wastage of public resources and the weaponisation of State agencies, the very vices he vowed to fight against.

According to Gachagua, when Ruto’s plan under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (Beta) failed, he resorted to launching plan after plan to hoodwink Kenyans.

The Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader, who addressed the press at the party’s headquarters, poured cold water on the proposed plan that the President is set to launch today, claiming it would not be implemented, just like others that have been launched over the last four years.

“When the Bottom-Up plan failed, Kenyans were told that the answer lay in the National Dialogue Committee report. It, too, has failed to deliver the hope, unity and reforms that were promised. Thereafter came the Ten-Point Agenda, presented as a renewed roadmap to rescue the country. It has equally failed to change the trajectory of our nation. In failing the plan, this  administration has failed to keep Kenya on the development path envisioned under Kenya Vision 2030,” he said.

He added: “If the author of the plan could not deliver it, if NADCO has failed to provide solutions, and if the Ten-Point Agenda has failed to change the country’s direction, what reason do Kenyans have to expect a different outcome?”

The former deputy president accused his former boss of designing the plans to distract Kenyans from demanding accountability over the implementation status of previous plans.

“Whenever he is asked to account for what he has actually done, because he has no answer, he simply points to the next horizon. The harsh truth is that he does not have the capacity to deliver. You cannot fail today and ask us to trust you tomorrow for some distant, far-off future. Based on your performance, Kenyans don’t want to hear about 2060 or ‘beyond 2030’,” he said.

In a quick rejoinder, Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi told off Gachagua and opposition leaders, saying they should give Ruto room to serve his full 10-year term, even as he accused him of having no agenda, in addition to lacking coherence and clarity.

He urged them to spend the remaining time refining their agenda in preparation for the next election cycle.

“You should be celebrating us; we have saved this economy. Most of these people are fighting Ruto on ethnic grounds, not on economy. If it is the economy, we should be called to be celebrated; some of us should be given awards in this country because we removed this country from where it was almost tipping. Let’s give credit where it is due,” Mbadi said.

Leaders of Majority and Minority Kimani Ichung’wah (Kikuyu) and Junet Mohamed led MPs in saying that Gachagua was driven by his attention-seeking disorder to make a statement designed to malign the Kenya Kwanza administration.

“His unworthy effort to bring the government to disrepute must not pass without response. He has run out of tricks and has resorted to unimaginable innuendos, malicious rumors, and reckless disparagement of institutions. Kenyans cannot be persuaded by the empty-headedness, divisive and polarising rhetoric of the tribal bigot,” Ichung’wah uttered in the heavily worded statement.

On the rule of law, Gachagua claimed Ruto had lied to Kenyans that he would protect the country’s constitutional democracy, only for him to entrench an imperial presidency, personalise power and create what he described as “the inevitable and predictable end of economic apartheid”.

“Today, we have an imperial presidency, economic apartheid and power under a ruthless dictator, but he has done a complete 360-degree turn on his covenant,” he said.

He claimed that, for the last four years, the country had experienced a total breakdown of law and order, where “goons have taken over the legal mandate and role of the National Police Service”, while accusing the Cabinet Secretary and the Inspector-General of Police of allegedly working with goons and providing cover-up for extrajudicial killings and abductions in the country.

“Ruto has established an assassination network in Kenya to deal with political dissidents for elimination. For example, in 2024, during the Gen Z and Saba Saba protests, this government told us that guns were stolen from the Kikuyu Police Station. The truth of the matter is those guns never left the police station, and rogue officers and criminals have access to them whenever there is an important assignment,” Gachagua said.

On Ruto’s economic transformation pledges, Gachagua said the President had betrayed his plan to put money into people’s pockets by initiating policies that had been detrimental to Kenyans.

He cited a Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) report that revealed that, in the four years, several local and international companies had either closed operations or exited the Kenyan market.

“Today, households continue to experience severe financial squeeze due to cumulative tax changes, high utility costs, transport costs and a stagnant job market that has limited formal opportunities,” he added.

He said fuel hikes had contributed to higher transport costs, increased food prices and greater pressure on household incomes, while noting that tax increases had worsened Kenyans’ suffering.

“Instead of reducing taxes, Ruto’s administration introduced new tax measures, expanded statutory deductions, implemented changes to public finance management and undertook toxic borrowing to finance government  programmes. It also introduced reforms affecting public institutions and the administration of government,” he said.

On debt management, Gachagua described Ruto’s government as the worst in terms of borrowing, claiming the administration had violated Article 211 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, and Section 15(2)(c) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012, which he said strictly prohibits the financing of recurrent expenditure using debt.

“The Grand Coalition Government borrowed an average of Sh200 billion annually, the Jubilee government borrowed an average of Sh700 billion annually, but this regime borrows an average of Sh1.4 trillion annually with no corresponding development. Since August 2022, Kenya’s debt growth has entered a dangerous pattern of continuous triple-digit or near-triple-digit expansions. Today, every citizen of Kenya and every child born has a debt of Sh221,898.53,” he said.

Gachagua claimed that, while the government was on a borrowing spree, senior government officials were involved in “wanton corruption and mega scandals”, claiming the country had witnessed some of its biggest scandals under Ruto’s watch.

He said the growth of the State House budget from Sh8 billion to Sh18 billion was a scandal, alleging that the money was used to bribe delegations heading to State House.

“Under the E-Citizen, a special audit report by the Office of the Auditor-General exposed major financial and governance weaknesses, noting over Sh11 billion in collections lacking clear documentation or routed through non-designated accounts, alongside irregular payments to private entities,” he said.

At the same time, Gachagua accused Ruto of surrendering the country’s strategic assets to private individuals and a neighbouring country.

“On the divestiture from Kenya Pipeline, has Kenya surrendered its ownership and control to a neighbouring country? What was the rationale for forcing Kenyan State corporations to invest public funds in a public entity?”

He added: “Who is the mysterious lead transaction adviser/investment banker who was the face of the IPO? How did he acquire his Kenyan citizenship, and whose interests does he represent? Ruto and Senator Aaron Cheruiyot must come clear on their relationship with this mysterious dual-citizen investment banker.”

He claimed that the sale of the Government’s equity stake in Safaricom to Vodacom for Sh204 billion was a rip-off, alleging that each share was grossly undervalued at Sh34. He demanded answers on why Ruto did not allow the use of an open price discovery mechanism or allow regulated co-operative and SACCO organisations, which had Sh839 billion in deposits at the end of December 2025, to buy out the stake.

He claimed other national assets, such as New KCC, Kenya Ports Authority and Kenya Airways, had also been strategically targeted for sale.