Mutuse: No citizen should make remarks DP uttered

Kibwezi MP Mwengi Mutuse (right) during Senate impeachment trial against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on October 16, 2024. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s infamous “shareholding” remarks came back to bite him as the Senate began hearing his impeachment trial.

Kibwezi West Member of Parliament Mwengi Mutuse, who moved the impeachment motion in the National Assembly, faulted the DP for his remarks, which he said alienated significant populations across the country.

Mutuse, the National Assembly’s first witness, argued that the DP’s remarks were inflammatory and threatened to spark conflict. He highlighted past instances in Kenya, the region and the world that descended into conflict due to careless utterances by the political elite.

“The Deputy President, in the last two years, has been in various places been publicising the narrative that Kenya is a company with shareholders and only those with shares should benefit from development and service delivery,” Mutuse argued during his cross-examination by prosecution lawyer Muthomi Thiankolu.

The National Assembly presented video clips that showed the DP stating that the Kenya Kwanza administration was a shareholding entity.

Mutuse argued that it was unfortunate that in one of the clips, Gachagua said that he was unapologetic about his shareholding remarks, saying the DP had violated the Constitution and allegedly committed crimes.

The first-term Member of Parliament said that Gachagua was not fit to hold office for his remarks, which he argued a DP should not utter.

“Not just the deputy president, but any citizen of the republic,” he added, saying that Gachagua’s assertion was that “there are Kenyans who are supposed to benefit from this government and others who are not.”

“... and the Deputy President will ensure that only those who voted for the government will benefit, not those without shares.”

Thiankolu tore into arguments that Gachagua’s utterances were not enough to warrant impeachment, with Mutuse arguing that they were impeachable offences.

“There is everything extraordinary when (in) a country of 46 tribes, someone advocates for the servicing of less than two of the communities. Where will the 44 others go?” Mutuse posed.

His second strand of testimonies involved the immense wealth he argues Gachagua has amassed since he became DP. 

Raiding brother

“During the short period that I was doing research on this motion, I have come across properties that are registered in the name of the Deputy President or in the name of his children or other proxies that run cumulatively to a value of Sh5.2 billion and there is no clear trace where the monies used to purchase those properties came from,” said Mutuse, who argued such assets qualified to be unexplained assets.

The MP also testified that some companies were transacting with the DP’s office and were paid from Gachagua’s office, saying they were “conduits for corruption” and argued that the DP should bear political responsibility.

Mutuse would wade into Gachagua’s acquisition of multiple properties, including high-end hotels. The MP accused the DP of “raiding” his late brother’s (former Nyeri Governor Nderitu Gachagua) properties, acquiring them through proxies.

Among the late Gachagua’s properties are the Vipingo Beach Resort in Kilifi and the Olive Garden Hotel in Nairobi. Mutuse tabled evidence that Gachagua’s sons, Keith and Kevin Rigathi, were directors of Vipingo Beach, which formerly belonged to the late governor, against the fact that they were not listed as executors of Nderitu’s will.

Mutuse would submit an affidavit by Peterson Njomo Muchira, who swore that on March 31, 2023, Gachagua approached him to purchase Olive Garden, which also belonged to Nderitu’s estate.

“The Deputy President persuaded me to enter into an informal secret arrangement. The terms of the secret arrangement were that the Deputy President would buy the hotel from me by refunding the purchase price of Sh412 million,” Mutuse read out Muchira’s affidavit.

Other properties in question include the Treetops Hotel in Nyeri, with the MP arguing that Gachagua used his position as DP to acquire it and the Outspan Hotel, both through proxies, which Mutuse said was acquired in questionable circumstances. 

He argued that Treetops was acquired in June last year from the Kenya Wildlife Service, a public entity, trashing Gachagua’s testimony that he had urged his family against trading with the government.

Mutuse said that there was no letter confirming the disbursement of a loan to the DP to buy Outspan, which was acquired for nearly Sh1 billion in September last year, and further stated that he doubted the DP could afford to buy the hotel.

“From the known legitimate source of income, which is his salary as deputy president gazetted by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, roughly around Sh1.2 million, after taxation an aggregate of Sh1 million, it would not be possible to acquire Sh1 billion within a period of ten months,” said Mutuse.

The MP would also testify that Gachagua had undermined President William Ruto, arguing that the government risked being dysfunctional owing to differences between the two.

Similarly, Gachagua’s differences with Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja were highlighted as alleged interference  in the devolved unit. Mutuse accused the DP of interfering with the Judiciary, presenting evidence of Gachagua’s remarks against High Court judge Esther Maina, who previously found the DP’s property to have been proceeds of crime.

The DP’s remarks against National Intelligence Services Director General Noordin Haji over the youth-led uprising that climaxed in June also came up, as did the involvement of his family members in an alleged corruption scandal involving the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority.