Riggy G made his bed and he should be facilitated to lie in it

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. (Courtesy)

In the run-up to the August 9, 2022 presidential poll, the rumor mills were rife with Prof Kithure Kindiki’s name as the most likely presidential running mate on the Kenya Kwanza ticket. Then, from the blues, emerged Rigathi Gachagua who, by most accounts, was not a frontrunner for the high office of the Deputy President of Kenya.

Those who were privy to the behind-the-scenes negotiations have intimated that Riggy G bullied his way to the deputy presidency by touting deep pockets and the numerical superiority of his ethnic community.

Riggy G had the language that resonated with the rural folk, and mobilized them to reject Uhuru Kenyatta’s preferred presidential successor, Raila Odinga. So, Riggy G earned the running mate position not on the basis of personal attributes, but rather due to extraneous factors of financial muscle and ethnic affiliation. It was, therefore, only logical for him to stay loyal to those two all-important factors that catapulted him to the number two position in the country.

From the day Riggy G was cleared to be William Ruto’s runningmate, he started amplifying the significance of his Mt Kenya backyard as a critical factor in determining the outcome of the presidential poll. Once Ruto was declared the duly elected President, Riggy G saw himself not as a national leader, but as the most prominent personality representing the Gikuyu interest in the government.

That mentality did not change even after the President had settled into his role. Riggy G kept behaving as if he was Ruto’s equal on account of the votes that came from the Mt Kenya region. The President was understandably very uncomfortable with the turn of events. Pundits have pointed out that the President hoped, in vain, that his principal assistant would transition from a person who saw himself as representing regional interest in the government into a national leader who cared about issues affecting the entire country.

That behaviour was rather surprising given Riggy G’s experience in the provincial administration. Clearly, his judgment was blurred by an overrated sense of ethnic superiority of the vote-rich Gikuyu community. Riggy G’s boisterous approach to national issues is said to have frustrated Ruto’s efforts towards creating a cohesive society.

It is reported that the President’s frantic efforts to prevail upon the DP to tone down on his ethnic rhetoric were futile. The DP was obviously behaving the way he did with full support and legitimacy accorded by his constituency that was keen to maintain visibility in the government. The simple explanation for this callous behaviour that has consistently characterized Riggy G’s eventful two-year stint as the DP is that it was meant to leave no doubt that the Ruto-led government could not survive without the Mt Kenya support.

That is why a hype was created that Ruto and his government was constantly under a threat from Raila Odinga, and it was only Riggy G who could wade off the opposition leader’s designs. According to Riggy G, for as long as Raila remained the enemy number one of the state, the self-declared son of Mau Mau would be the one who had the wherewithal and courage to tame him.

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Clearly, Riggy G was punching above his weight as far as taming Raila was concerned. Raila is a political enigma with a frenzied following in some regions of this country. Those who are in the know have opined that the most irksome thing to the President in their relationship of convenience with the DP has been the exaggerated level of entitlement and impunity of his deputy. For whatever reason, Riggy G somehow believed that he was sharing the government with Ruto as equal partners. That is why the DP kept repeating that the Mt Kenya region contributed about 50 per cent of the votes that catapulted William Ruto to the presidency. Clearly, this was blackmail. If blackmail is repeated constantly, it becomes a threat.

Ruto must have felt cornered and threatened by the constant reminders that he owed his presidency to Mt Kenya region. The most logical thing for the President was to bring a checkmate. That is precisely the political goal that the President intended to achieve when he got into dalliance with Raila. This is attested to by the fact that the rapprochement between the two has been subjected to unrelenting hysterical attacks by Mt Kenya politicians led by Riggy G.

It was as if they had a premonition of Riggy G’s imminent fall, and the subsequent sidelining of his Gikuyu community from the centre of political power.

By excelling in his ethnic representation, Riggy G failed in his national duties. Not many Kenyans outside the Mount Kenya region trust the DP as a national leader.

Here is a man who was given an opportunity to serve at the apex of the state; the presidency. Instead of dedicating his intellect and energy to serve his country, he spent inordinate amounts of time telling Kenyans that his commitment was to the “Morima”, essentially demonstrating that he had not broken through his tribal entrapment. Riggy G’s public demeanour and comportment left Kenyans with no doubt that he was totally unprepared to handle the duties of his high office.

Now, he has been given an opportunity to go back home and concentrate on the love of his life: Morima. Why are some Kenyans complaining again? The guy has been rewarded with exactly what he has always wanted for the last two years of his deputy presidency.

I am happy that he is now in the process of being released fully from national duties so that he can go back home to the Morima.

There is a cardinal law of natural justice that once a man is down, do not continue to kick him.

Riggy G is now down, with his hands in the air, frantically looking for anything to cling onto. Please, do not continue to kick him; let him be. He made his own bed; let him lay on it peacefully.

The transition process must be done strictly within the law. The President must resist the temptation to step on the law in his determination to rid Kenya of this dyed-in-the-wool ethnic bigot.

Let the country not set a bad precedent whose ghosts might come back one day to haunt the nation.

Prof Ongore teaches at the Technical University of Kenya