ODM, UDA leaders gang up against Gachagua

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua during a church service at PEFA Church Kiamariga, Nyeri County on July 7, 2024. [DPSC]

A section of Kenya Kwanza and Orange Democratic Movement leaders hit out at Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua over his impeachment claims and subtle attacks on his boss, President William Ruto.

This comes as cracks in the ruling coalition continue to widen as Ruto’s allies in UDA and ODM rally up against the DP.

Yesterday, in the National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah described Gachagua’s claims of impeachment as a creation of his own and friends.

Speaking in Alego Usonga, Siaya, Ichung’wah said the Deputy President should desist from unfounded claims.

He accused the Gachagua of planning to use violence as a tool to intimidate Parliament.

“If you keenly listened to him yesterday, he passed a veiled threat to the people of Kenya when he said that even an impeachment motion would cause political instability,” he said.

Ichung’wah argued that the Deputy President having been an MP for five years may not have learnt much about what happens in Parliament.

“As a leader of the majority, I can tell Kenyans there have never been any impeachment plans against him. That has been his creation and those he walks around with,” he noted.

At the same time, ODM party chairperson Gladys Wanga claimed the decision by Gachagua to criticise his boss was unwarranted, arguing that he should instead focus on service delivery.

Speaking during a press interview in Kisumu, Wanga claimed they are not aware of any impeachment plans targeting the deputy president.

“Any MP can bring any motion then the parliamentary group sits and deals with it but for now we do not want to anticipate things we know nothing about. It is not in our purview,” said Wanga.

Wanga’s statement, however, conflicted with the position of a section of ODM officials who maintain that ODM is not part of UDA but remains an opposition party that has only donated four members to work with Ruto.

She argued that Kenyans are facing a myriad of challenges and expect solutions to their woes.

“Kenyans expect that they will sort the challenges affecting them like unemployment among young people, wastage in the public sector, corruption among other things. This is the expectation of Kenyans when anybody from the Presidency, including the President, comes out to address Kenyans,” she noted.

The ODM chairperson said they were taken aback and surprised that the Deputy President took two and a half hours on Citizen TV to speak about his removal from the President’s diary WhatsApp group.

Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi, a close ally of President Ruto, described Gachagua as a selfish leader.

Speaking d in Hamisi Constituency, Vihiga county, Sudi told Gachagua to respect other leaders.

“Our biggest problem as leaders is being selfish and greedy and when we fail to succeed in what we want, we then turn to our tribal lines and invoke the tribal card to help us achieve things we want,” said Sudi.

Sudi alleged that the DP is busy disrupting President Ruto’s government from delivering because of his own ambitions which are not beneficial to all Kenyans.

“Some people in our government have taken their tribal issue to be a national issue and they are busy antagonising everyone making it difficult for the government to work for Kenyans and achieve what it promised the people,” said Sudi.

Wanga noted that the Deputy President’s bitterness was arising from the fact that other people who are not considered shareholders of the government have now joined the government.

“Kenya is for all of us and all of us must have room to participate in nation building. The Deputy President must understand that he is a leader of this Republic and not of a certain region,” she argued.

She added: “I would like to hear him talking about the problems our fishermen are facing in Lake Victoria with our neighbors, the problems at the coast, the problems of sugarcane farmers in Western and not just speaking about a certain region.”

Kisumu West MP Rosah Buyu who told Gachagua denounced his earlier assertion that Kenya was a shareholding company.