If I'm impeached, I will leave with my head held high, says Gachagua

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. [DPCS]

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has confirmed existing claims of his impeachment, even as he associated the rumours with his woes of being undermined by President William Ruto’s aide, whom he did not mention.

In a three-hour interview with vernacular stations at his official Karen residence Sunday night, the second-in-command said he received reports that 21 Members of Parliament (MPs) met at the residence of one of the Cabinet Secretaries from Mt Kenya region, who told the meeting that the President was fed up with him.

“I hear the Minister disclosed to the MPs what I said during a past Cabinet meeting, which is wrong since members of the Cabinet have taken a vow not to discuss details of Cabinet conversations,” he said.

Gachagua said he was also privy to unconfirmed reports that his critics in the Kenya Kwanza administration wanted him out but had no numbers to impeach him.

He said the plot would now take advantage of opposition chief Raila Odinga’s entry into government to have the requisite numbers to send him home.

“I’m not scared, if my mistakes are to defend my people, I’m guilty, I don't have the money to bribe the MPs to protect my job, I will pack my luggage which can’t fill a truck and leave from this place (referring to Karen residence),” he said.

But he said he was surprised at the claims that the impeachment against him was being spearheaded by leaders from Mt Kenya due to his push for his community’s interests.

“If there is that motion, they should first go back to their electorate and explain to the people who voted for me. It is Kenyans, especially the Mt Kenya people who supported me and Ruto overwhelmingly. It's not MPs who elected me. It's Kenyans. They should get the signatures from Kenyans, not MPs," said Gachagua.

Gachagua also said the president did not brief him about Raila and his allies joining the government to help oust him but to stabilise the country.

"The president did not tell me that Raila was coming with his people to government to get rid of me. He said they were coming to help, and I believed him. So I am not taking the impeachment issues seriously," he said.

He disclosed that in the event Raila disrupts the government agenda, Mt Kenya region will apportion blame on the president and not Raila since he did not bring himself into government.

"Should Raila come and bring trouble in the government to an extent the Mt Kenya region is not happy, we will question the president because he is the one who brought him in," he said.

At the same time, Gachagua maintained that he would not resign from his post as he was elected alongside the president, even as he associated the impeachment rumours with the threat to the life of his staff and officers.

He said there has been intimidation of his allies with schemes to instill fear in them by government operatives, who he claimed included Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and an aide to the president.

“When 13 officers who worked at NIS were replaced procedurally, I took one of them to my office... but in efforts to instill fear in me, they sent an assassin who trailed the officer with a motorbike as he was leaving his home in Kileleshwa and shot him in the shoulder - they had missed his head. He visited a Nairobi Hospital for one week where the bullet was removed,"  Gachagua told the vernacular stations on Sunday night.

He lamented that despite reporting the case, the alleged assassins were yet to be brought to book.

Gachagua revealed how two of his allies, MPs Benjamin Gathiru alias Major Donk (Embakasi Central) and James Gakuya (Embakasi North) were being intimidated by the DCI for their association with him. He claimed Ruto’s aide was also calling on every leader demanding that they cut links with him.

“Major Donk was trailed on Sunday by over 15 officers from DCI who snatched his phone, while Gakuya was arrested and his phone too grabbed by the officers. All those who call me have had their phones tapped by the NIS and DCI in an attempt to scare me and to isolate people from me,” decried Gachagua.

Speaking about his staff at the Karen residence being interrogated by the sleuths in connection with the protests, Gachagua said that was the lowest the Kenya Kwanza administration sunk. He noted that even in the former administration where Ruto was undermined, it never got that level of disrespecting the office of the deputy president.

“They were asked whether they bought water to give the Gen Z protestors and whether they talk to me and why" Gachagua said, adding "This is a wider scheme to fight me in the government. These things were there in the last regime where there was weaponisation of State agencies and I would like to caution the DCI not to take us back. Abduction and extra judicial killings were never part of our vision during our campaigns,” Gachagua said.

He added: "I have talked to the president, who was not in the know, and I have told them that we should never shed blood in this country as that was not what we promised.”

While referring to the president’s past remarks that in future, any male presidential candidate could have a female running mate, Gachagua said he respected the president's decision.

“If that is his wish, I will respect that," he said.  

While acknowledging that the Gen Z protests were infiltrated at some point, Gachagua dismissed Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri’s claims that over 25,000 protestors were hired from Mt Kenya region, terming the claims baseless. He said the Gen Z protestors went on the roads demanding to be listened to.

“It is embarrassing for a leader to gossip that 25,000 youth came from Mt Kenya region. Was he counting the number? How did he know and yet he is not God. Such a leader should record a statement with DCI to shed more light. Such a claim endangers our children,” he said.

Gachagua said the protests by Gen Z were as a result of failure to be listened to and the arrogance exhibited by some government leaders and MPs. He said they claim that he was the one who sponsored them just because he called them "my children". 

While reacting to the new found dalliance between the president and Raila that birthed the broad-based government, Gachagua announced he would borrow a leaf from the move and pursue the broad-based relationship with friends from other communities.

He styled himself as former president Uhuru Kenyatta’s defender declaring that he would not allow anyone to drag his name and that of his family in the unnecessary squabbles.

“We were duped to undermine him and to treat him as an outcast for bringing Raila into government with Ruto telling us that Raila was a bad person. Now the President has reached out to him, I will now defend him and demand that the state releases his retirement perks and cars".Said Gachagua

“We blamed Uhuru for economy, it is now two years down the line, it is high time we focus on service delivery and stop using Uhuru as a scapegoat, they have dragged his brother Muhoho into the protests which is wrong, he should be left in peace,” Gachagua added.

Unlike his earlier position where he installed himself as the Mt Kenya kingpin, Gachagua declared that Uhuru was the kingpin and held the kingship stick (muthigi). He said his leadership mantle will always lie low in the presence of Uhuru.

“I changed my way of politics, I was abrasive and temperamental but that has changed, I have been advised by the elders, the church and the retired civil servants I have been guided that based on the foregoing I should look for friends outside Mt Kenya region, never again shall we go into an election with an enemy, Kalonzo helped the third President Mwai Kibaki, Raila is now in government and has supported my one man one vote one-shilling mantra,” he said.