Why Rigathi Gachagua's impeachment is good for Ruto

The impeached former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is – at long last– officially out of office, pitched into an uncertain political future and made poorer by the bruising court battles that failed to save his job.

The ex-DP's world collapsed in a month. The bulk of his security detail is gone, his government cars have been recalled and hefty perks could soon be cancelled. The former second in command is, at present, officially barred from holding any public office for 10 years.

Already, the country has entered a post-Gachagua era, with the swearing-in of Prof Abraham Kithure Kindiki, a decent former professor of law and immediate former Cabinet Secretary for Interior.

After weeks of impeachment proceedings and court battles, the phenomenon that was Riggy G has paid the price for his have-it-all or lose-it-all tactic. 

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His divisive and wild rhetoric has undone him, his lack of sound political strategy worked against him, his aggressiveness alarmed all, his unbridled ambition for power and alleged disloyalty spooked his boss and his parochial worldview alienated the wider public.

Still, Gachagua was not a devil incarnate. He was smart, eloquent and resolute, even though he, sometimes, behaved erratically and irrationally. He loved his fellow Kikuyus and larger Mount Kenya residents. He was never a pushover or timid. History books will remember him as the luckiest second in command who fell victim to his own ambition. He was aggressive to a fault; ambitious to the core and daring from the word go.

Gachagua’s craving for power was so out of whack that he eyed the top job even when he couldn’t anoint himself as the kingpin of Mount Kenya.  

Gachagua didn’t seem satisfied with being at Harambee House Annex. He had the appearance of someone who viewed his office as a springboard for the State House, the seat of the nation's power. He was in a hurry and in his quest for power, he rubbed many people the wrong way.

At times, Gachagua was an adorable and extraordinary man, but his reckless rhetoric made a mess of him. He immolated himself when he had every chance to succeed, a sad reminder of the Dutch proverb of the frog that jumped back into the pool, even though it had a golden stool to sit on.

Gachagua knew what he wanted, but didn't appear to have an idea about how to achieve it. He focused more on his region when his target should have been the nation. He was a terrible networker, with poor interpersonal skills who scared almost everyone who crossed his path. Officials dreaded his sight.

Warning about Gachagua’s behaviour started well before the impeachment motion, which accused him of bullying officials, of insubordination and of divisive, ethnic politics, among other charges.

“Rigathi is a mess!” wrote Kileleshwa County Assembly Member Robert Alai on X on Dec. 29, 2022, saying that the DP was a “liability to Ruto" and urging: "Let’s think of the next DP."

On Friday, when Gachagua's successor was sworn in, President Ruto admitted that he was almost "a lonely voice in the Executive, especially in the presidency," and that he lacked a DP who could explain government projects to Kenyans.

In his recent speech rejecting charges against him, Gachagua gave a sneak peek of the pain he subjected to his boss.

“Once in a while, we may argue kidogo kidogo (in a small way) because there's nothing written. So sometimes when people say I am blackmailing the president, I am simply asking, you know, my boss we agreed on the following, can we please do it. We agreed on this and that can we please do it, you know,” Gachagua said a day before the National Assembly voted him out. 

Gachagua continued: "We agreed that the people of Mount Kenya who had been given a job by Uhuru would not be removed without being replaced. We don't seem to be honouring that, can we honour it. We agreed that if we need to replace somebody who has not performed, we exchange one for one, can we do it. We agreed that we need to give Mau Mau roads priority, can we please do it because that is what we agreed.” 

Gachagua argued that he was "just a crusader for honesty and for fulfilling written and unwritten agreements," adding: "That is all I am."

A strong and fiercely independent-minded man, Gachagua had little symbiotic relationships with his boss to begin with. Indeed, Gachagua’s eyes appeared trained on Ruto's seat, even when it was still occupied. He gave away that yearning when he let down his boss on June 26, the day he held a press conference in Mombasa to expose that he had no qualms about taking his boss’s position if an opportunity arose. 

After that presser, accusations swirled that he may even had a predetermined intention to unseat his boss, with security agents questioning the ex-DP’s allies for their alleged role in the June-July protests that the government later characterized as a coup attempt. 

But, Gachagua was not a man to don sackcloth and ashes. He continued to behave as if nothing had happened, still fondly referring to President William Ruto “my boss.”  

National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung'wah accused Gachagua of being "a black man with a very black heart.”

The Senate's lawyer, James Orengo, said as much during the impeachment hearings in which he accused Gachagua of raiding the accounts of his late brother, Nderitu Gachagua and using their money to acquire properties, including the Treetop Hotel, after getting the signed will of his bedridden brother in a London trip.

"The acquisition of these properties came out of criminal conduct," Orengo said, a claim that was swiftly rejected by Gachagua’s lawyer Elisha Ongoya, who asked for "basic decency," saying the allegations had "no basis in the (impeachment) motion." 

Acting prematurely

A former political science student, Gachagua knew the ultimate prize was the presidency and to attain that he had a handy playbook, Ruto's stratagem during the Uhuru administration. There could be – it seemed to him, perhaps – a chance to turn tables on Ruto or at least fight from within until the right opportunity appeared.

Coming from Mount Kenya, he already had a sense of entitlement, and being the second in command meant he could bully his boss, frighten his tribesmen into submission and finally be able to preside over Kenya's 55 million willy-nilly.

When last June the country exploded into “Ruto Must Go” chant – which was part of an all-purpose agitation in which a motley of interest groups, such as Gen Z, civil society organizations and politicians rode – he almost felt that the time to act had come.

In an unusual outburst, he sympathized with the protesters and appeared to blame the ruling elite, including the president for not listening to Kenyans. “Where did we stop listening to the people,” he blared.  He also took on the country’s untouchable, the intelligence chief, perhaps certain enough that the man will either be ousted or he will have the opportunity to do the firing himself if his dreams come true.

Gachagua bet big, almost sure that his boss was gone, and his time had beckoned, and all that he needed was to make a play for the country’s leadership.

That had never happened, even though the June 25 happenings changed the country's politics in many ways.  Those who rode the Gen Z protesters regretted their actions, as allies of Raila Odinga, the opposition leader, reaped where they had not sown. 

Despite that setback, Gachagua didn’t look back. He plowed ahead, full of his sense of righteousness. He didn’t offer sincere apologies, perhaps his thinking being that the regime was too weak to survive and the country was ready for change. It was a matter of time before the whole regime crumbled and he got an opportunity to inherit his boss, his thinking may have gone like that. 

But Gachagua acted precipitously. 

While the credibility of the government was at rock bottom, it was never at imminent risk of falling. Gachagua's situational awareness was terrible. He appeared to have spent little time or thought on how and when he could dash the top job. His designs were more like short-term tactics than solid, long-term strategies. He was less of a diplomat and more like a street-smart. He burned too many bridges, undermining his own ambition whose realization depended on the size of the network he kept.

He didn’t also seem to have taken into account that the man he was fighting was a survivalist, who was always one jump ahead of his rivals, a wily who knew what a real political fight meant and how to bring foes to their knees.

Ruto fight-back

When Ruto’s pushback started, Gachagua was quickly reduced to a whining number. He already felt the heat and has recently admitted that he had survived two assassination attempts, something he had feared as early as last year when he stopped taking tea from the state house for fear of being poisoned.

When Kibwezi West lawmaker Mwengi Mutuse brought to the National Assembly what appeared like karma, Gachagua didn't make any attempt to atone for his past. He’s not – after all -- a man to capitulate. He persisted in his combativeness, initially notching up some legal successes like when he delayed the swearing in of his successor.

To keep his job, Gachagua inundated courts with preemptive suits, issued veiled threats and asked for forgiveness, if qualified. He was a tactician but a poor strategist. He embarked on a big fight without thinking of its consequences and imprudently fought it to the bitter end, which, in the end, meant his political end.  For a casual observer, Gachagua would appear as a person who couldn’t help it. He acted like an adrenaline junkie and oddball.

"You can't be a quitter. You must fight on," he said on July 19, 2022 during the deputy presidential debate. In his view, quitting was not an honorable thing to do. "I think you must fight on from within and pursue what you intend to do," he said 

In his last legal gasps, through the courts, his defense was as thoughtless as his brazen hunger for power, sparing little thought for how he could reduce his risks. He blew several opportunities because of poor decisions. His fight-back was doomed, especially after he went after his boss, whom he wanted to take down with him.

Atypical politician

Gachagua will be remembered as the atypical, once-in-a-lifetime politician, who was different from previous vice presidents, who were mostly submissive, hid their ambitions and opted to work within the permitted space to live to fight another day. Moi and Kibaki, both former vice presidents, survived to become presidents and Kalonzo is still trying.

Like Dr Josephat Njuguna Karanja, who resigned after falling out with President Daniel Moi, Gachagua allegedly elected to challenge the head of state. Karanja’s resignation destroyed the career of one of the brightest brains in the country. 

Gachagua’s career could take the same trajectory.

ALSO READ: Ousted Gachagua now changes tack in his battle to salvage career

If Gachagua was the potty mouth that Ruto needed in the 2022 election campaigns, Ruto must have realized that the man’s long-term risk outweighed his benefits and that he needed to to jettison him. For, there was no hope of the man ever redeeming himself.

In Gachagua’s world, no one or issue was off limits: He put down junior government officials, took a swipe at ministers and made a dig at the president, even saying that he had learnt some of the accusations levelled against him from his boss.

During the campaign, Gachagua lashed out at rivals as if there was no tomorrow, with President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga bearing the brunt of his vitriolic utterance. He appeared to hate them with gusto and wanted them out of the country’s politics -- finito. 

Gachagua was so Mount Kenya-centric that Kenya was no more than a shareholding company and that Mount Kenya, being a populous region, must receive more revenue via his proposed one-man-one-vote-one-shilling formula.

Gachagua’s real personality hid in plain sight. Throughout his political and personal journey, he did the things that benefited him — and history is replete with that.

In a recent essay in the Standard, Rigathi’s classmate, Wafula Buke, narrated how Gachagua spied on his fellow students during their university education.

“Several of my comrades have died from the effects of the path we took. On your part you followed the dictates of the system choosing to betray your fellow students,” Buke claimed in his essay titled “Gachagua: A Most Successful Classmate of UoN class”. “You have enjoyed life, wealth and government jobs. On the other hand, some of my kind have served prison terms, exile, education terminated etc. 

Buke said he was “relegated to the village pursuing subsistence objectives as a direct result of the victories of your (Gachagua's) team.”

The unintended outcome

Gachagua’s rebellion had an unintended outcome: It reinforced Ruto’s hand not only in the remaining three years but beyond. The new DP – already a decent dude -- will be cautious about betraying his boss. Fearful of repercussions, Ruto's detractors will think long and hard before they take on the head of state.

In short, Gachagua was the best that had happened to Ruto. His rebellion didn't lead to Ruto's ouster but did make him stronger. Gachagua was the equivalent of an early warning system for Ruto, who as late as last June played nice with his principal assistant to avoid early political fights.    

On Friday, the man who bestrode the political scene like a colossus for more than two years was a private citizen, sitting on a grassy ground and having a good time with his family.  Many friends have since either disowned or distanced themselves from him.

By contrast, a beaming Ruto was heaping praise on Gachagua’s successor, Kindiki, saying: "You are eloquent, my brother. You are intelligent, my brother, I am confident that you will do that, which I have missed for the last two years."