How shareholding mantra became Gachagua's ultimate defeat

When Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was prayed for during a chruch service at MCK All Saints, Kinoru, Meru County. [DPCS]

As impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua defends himself in court over several governance and political transgressions, it is his agitation for a shareholding in government to favour a section of the country that appears to have rattled many people.

He insists that only voters who supported President Ruto and his Kenya Kwanza coalition in the 2022 presidential polls should get a share of positions in government, and that appears to have put him in a very awkward place after his boss disowned him.

His spirited defence, that his shareholders’ call only amplified the position adopted and signed by the President and other Kenya Kwanza coalition partners, has largely been dismissed by both critics and the President’s supporters.

A list of over 100 senior staff members from his office sent on compulsory leave after the impeachment showed that over three-quarters of them were from the Mt Kenya region, and that has also only helped to fuel the criticism and paint him as a tribal leader.

Ethnic affiliation

It has brought to the fore debate about the apparent culture of exclusion based on ethnic affiliation and favouritism, which has denied equal opportunities to Kenyans.

The subject of shareholding will most likely play out in the court case filed by Gachagua against his impeachment largely because it was a key ground that the Senate identified for his removal from office.

A devolution report released last year showed that Kenyans are very unhappy with corruption and nepotism in all levels of government, both ills mainly driven by a lack of transparency and meritocracy.

The survey established that nepotism, cronyism, favouritism and tribalism have also threatened the concept of devolution supported by Kenyans in the 2010 Constitution when they demanded for an equitable share of resources.

Citizens expected devolution to change their lives, but instead, they continue wallowing in poverty and squalor, with critical services like health and water still a pipe dream to many, more than 10 years after they became devolved functions.

“There is massive tribalism in some counties, which gives room for serious levels of corruption,” said the report, and that probably explains why many people appeared to raise objections when the Deputy President went around the country, promoting the shareholding agenda.

The country has, over the years in previous administrations, struggled to deal with negative ethnicity in politics and nepotism in public service as was revealed by Parliament last year when a list of those hired by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) was leaked.

Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi argues that Gachagua’s biggest challenge is that he appears to have violated constitutional provisions that provide for national values and principles that include national cohesion and integrity of leadership, all raised in charge Number One by Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse in his impeachment motion.

No apology

“One article that runs through all charges that he appears not to have observed, is Article 131 of the Constitution that promotes national unity, respect of the Constitution and unity of the nation, plus respect and diversity in the country,” says Osotsi.

Impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua with lawyers Paul Muite and Ndegwa Njiru during the hearing of his impeachment at Milimani Law Court on October 23, 2024. [David Gichuru, Standard]

Gachagua received a lot of backlash early this year when he clarified the infamous shareholding remark, telling Kenyans that he was unapologetic in his demands that those who believed in William Ruto’s agenda and supported it to a man had every right to “benefit immensely” from his government.

“I have no apology at all and if that can bring a problem so be it because for now, there are certain positions that are reserved for people who believed in William Ruto and his programmes to transform Kenya. They also voted for him and showed him love,” said Gachagua.

He urged the naysayers to stop wasting their time, thinking that a division would emerge in government, because he spoke the same language with the President, as they consulted, agreed and moved on.

Karuti Kanyinga of the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), also argued that campaigning and continuing talking about the interests of the Mt Kenya region and promoting ethnic politics led to Gachagua’s removal because it threatened the regime.

Prof Kanyinga also thinks Gachagua’s main undoing was his failure to recognise that Kenyans got a new Constitution in 2010, which set a very robust framework for strengthening governance institutions in the country.

The impeached Deputy President is also blamed for allegedly ignoring the fact that the Constitution respects all ethnic communities and that all Kenyans should be treated equally to create an inclusive society.

“The fact that the DP went out of his way to talk about Mt Kenya being the main beneficiaries of what he was claiming to be his quest for leadership in the region went against the Constitution and set him against many people,” said Kanyinga.

Equal opportunity

He also thinks the challenge facing the country, is that like Gachagua, many other political leaders also do not recognise that politics changed since 2022, when people campaigned on issues like economic recovery, ending poverty, unemployment and providing access to basic services.

Other leaders interviewed also insisted that the politics of shareholding needs to be dismantled because it denies Kenyans equal opportunity when the focus should be on meritocracy, proper qualification, competence and skills, instead of being on ethnic consideration that compromises service delivery.

“Having people from your community and cronies surrounding you also compromises service delivery because such people become sycophants who cannot offer proper advice to any leaders, which could be the reason Gachagua was not advised to stop his shareholding narrative,” says Osotsi.

Having his office staffed by people from his backyard, they opined, may have denied him the objectivity to see and comprehend that he was alienating other Kenyans, and that is why when it came to voting in the House, some MPs did not have any doubt in their minds as to the next action.

President William Ruto and impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua at State House Nairobi after a press conference. [File, Standard]

They accuse Gachagua of failing to see other national perspectives and imperatives, and that the skewed staff complement of advisers from his region may have failed to advise him appropriately even as he hurtled towards impeachment.

“Judging from the political trajectory that culminated in his impeachment, it is clear that something was quite wanting in the quality of the DP’s office and his retinue of advisers and counsellors who did not see it coming,” an MP said.

The impeachment debate has also further justified the common argument in Kenyan society that local politics is about elite-based interests and not the delivery of public good because most of the political lords are tribal bigots who divide people so that they can rule.

Political analysts also think Gachagua could have attempted to misuse and abuse the power of his office by reprimanding officers in the National Intelligence Service and the Judiciary.

On the positive side, however, they also argue that leaders with such overbearing demands will in the future tread carefully because of the consequences that have befallen the Deputy President.

Speaking in an interview this week, Tana River County Senator Danson Mungatana asked leaders to show humility by respecting those in authority and their juniors when they are in office.

Public spat

He also pointed out that never before had a vice president or even a deputy president engaged the President in a public spat, because they all respected authority.

“Gachagua only served for one term as MP for Mathira and then became Deputy President and he is also not a party leader. Others before him never talked back at the President or created a language of division,” says Mungatana.

But lawyer Danstan Omari holds a different view, arguing that Gachagua’s fight for shares was a Kenya Kwanza agenda that he was only amplifying the support of his boss William Ruto.

“I want Kenyans to be very clear on this matter because all presidential appointments are gazetted by the President” says Omari, who happens to be one of the impeached DP’s lawyers in the ongoing ouster court hearings.

Prof Macharia Munene also thinks Gachagua failed by trying to impose himself as a leader of the Mt Kenya people before they even endorsed him, and also ignored calls urging him to go slow in his fight against the President.

He cautioned that deputy and vice presidents are not supposed to have their own minds when serving in office because they serve at the pleasure of the President.

The historian says Gachagua was told right from the beginning that the things he was doing were not right, because there was no way he could keep on talking about “the President and I” as if it is was a two-man government, yet only one was given the big sword.