The William Ruto and Rigathi Gachagua 2022 Presidential Election Ticket was controversial from the word go. Two strong-willed individuals, it was evident to many that the ticket could hardly last a term.
While on the campaign trail in 2021, Deputy President William Ruto promised never to subject his running mate, in the event they formed government, to the alleged humiliation he had suffered under the retiring President Uhuru Kenyatta. It was a hollow pledge. As a strong-headed individual, a laid-back personality was best suited for him as a principal assistant. Gachagua was too independent and entitled.
Mr Gachagua, the second Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya, served one term as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Mathira from 2017 to 2022 before ascending the political ladder to the second in command.
Within that short period in active politics, the former provincial administrator cut his niche as an astute ground mobilizer with a venomous tongue to match, to the extent that when the time came to nominate a running mate in their United Democratic Alliance (UDA) political formation for the stub at President, William Ruto could not ignore him.
The former Mathira MP is a rainmaker when on your side but a thorn in the flesh as a competitor. Immediate former President Uhuru Kenyatta knows better, and so does Raila Odinga, the runners-up in the last Presidential Election.
First forward, the duo defied unsurmountable odds, including a hostile incumbency, to stage a surprise win in the August 2022 Presidential Election. Predictably, it was not a bed of roses for the two to run government. It did not take long before the President and his Deputy began irreconcilably pulling in different directions. Their first two years in office were a roller coaster.
The August 2024 Gen Z protests against the runaway economy, specifically the Finance Bill 2023, broke the Camel’s back between the President and his Deputy. The Deputy President had to pave the way for someone who could play the role of a principal assistant to the President, as it should have been from the beginning without so much as questioning the rationale behind the President’s decisions. Mr Gachagua was impeached on October 17, 2024.
It was evident, however, to political pundits that by impeaching his Deputy, President William Ruto was committing a grave political mistake. The weight and stench of Mr Gachagua’s baggage could better be borne by the President from within than without the Government.
The impeachment proponents believed it would strip Mr Gachagua of his political value and confine him to his village, where he could easily be forgotten, and that the appointment to the same office of someone from the same region would quell the voters’ discontent. They were wrong.
A shrewd politician, Mr Gachagua milked a political premium from his impeachment process. First, he hired a team of sharp lawyers to defend him in the Senate. They did a sterling job discrediting the impeachment motion’s evidence on the Senate floor.
By the time the battery of Gachagua’s lawyers was done cross-examining Hon. Eckomas Mutuse Mwengi, the MP for Kibwezi West and the mover of the impeachment motion, the majority of Kenyans watching live on their televisions, even those who did not like Gachagua, were convinced that the motion was hollow and a witch-hunt. The Deputy President pensively sat through the proceedings, braving sensitive allegations in Hon. Mutuse’s evidence that sometimes bordered on family ties.
In the afternoon, when Gachagua was to take the stand and defend himself in cross-examination, he did not show up from the lunch break, sparking off speculations and fears of possible elimination. It turned out he had been taken ill and admitted. Nonetheless, the Senate defied all rules of natural justice and gleefully impeached him in his absence while he was lying on a hospital bed, fighting for his life.
As doubtful as it were that the Deputy President was indeed sick, the Senate should have given him the benefit of the doubt and suspended the impeachment for a day or two. While in the hospital, the Government withdrew his security and vehicles. Three days later, he was discharged from the hospital a lonely man – impeached and disserted. He challenged the impeachment in a court of law where intrigues of filing, prioritizing the cause list, court jurisdiction, and interpretation of the law were no different from the shenanigans ensuing in Parliament.
While Parliament and the Judiciary came off as rubberstamps of the Executive, religiously doing the bidding of the President irrespective of the probity value at stake, the Presidency came across as a bunch of vultures capable of cannibalizing even their own. Gachagua, on the other hand, headed home as a people’s hero, especially in his base of the Mount Kenya region. Truth be told, he won himself empathy from quarters that had, hitherto, loathed him.
For the ensuing period, the impeached Deputy President restricted himself to his Mt. Kenya region, where he spread the gospel of his betrayal with resounding success.
As a guest of honor, Geoffrey Rigathi Gachagua recently joined Opposition luminaries at the Democratic Action Party of Kenya (DAP-K) unveiling of its new Nairobi offices. It was his first key political foray out of his Mt. Kenya region. His speech at the event left tongues wagging. He was fearless, direct, intentional, and, as usual, venomous. It resounded with the audience and has basked in the glory of sustained online reviews.
He wrapped up Kenyans’ issues with President Ruto’s Government in a 30-minute speech, articulating them in a manner that Opposition leaders like Kalonzo Musyoka and Eugene Wamalwa have been unable to do.
First and most important, Mr. Gachagua made it clear, stating in no uncertain words that his agenda is to end Ruto’s presidency at the ballot in 2027 and that he is ready to sacrifice his ambitions and be part of a team with a similar arrangement.
“I want to give my commitment, and that of my team, and our supporters, and they are many, they are in millions, that we are part of this team and we will walk this journey together to liberate this country, and we shall make whatever sacrifices necessary to make sure that William Ruto is a one-term President,” he promised, adding that he has consulted widely on the same and his base has instructed him to join hands with other Kenyans.
Throughout his speech, the former Deputy President intoned that he is out to consolidate his base and join a larger team to ensure President Ruto is out of power come 2027.
“We must not let the people of Kenya down. My people have asked me to look for friends. They are saying if this person has hurt us this much in his first term, in the unlikely event that he gets a second term, he will make us go in short pants. They have tasked me to bring together friends and find a formula, and they don’t care who it (the flagbearer) will be. We shall be selfless as a team. Let us not approach this election with a predetermined mindset. Let us set our eyes on removing this guy. That is our first objective,” he said. That should worry the State House.
He then revealed President William Ruto’s deceptive nature with the precision of an insider, giving details hitherto unknown to the public. He, for instance, disclosed that the President would launch the construction of a road with pomp and colour, knowing well that the Government had no budget for it, only for the construction equipment to leave the site a day or so later. Such characterization does not fit the stature of a person occupying the Office of President.
The former Deputy President referred to the State House in Nairobi as the epitome of corruption and dubbed President Ruto’s pet projects, the Affordable Housing and the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), the biggest frauds ever perpetrated on the Kenyan people. These two projects have put salaried Kenyans in misery by drastically reducing their net income. Worse, they have not improved their wellbeing. Gachagua’s disclosure that affordable housing is more of a business enterprise for the big boys in President Ruto’s inner circles to supply raw materials only adds salt to injury.
Finally, the former Deputy President shared a formula in his speech for what he believes is the winning strategy. He believes and is right that all three million people in formal employment have a bone to pick with the President owing to over-taxation on their incomes. They will influence at least six million others against the President, bringing the number to nine million voters. If you add that to those in the Gen Z voting category, it will be over for President Ruto.
As far-fetched as it may sound now, that formula can potentially bring Ruto down at the ballot in August 2027. No sane working person, not unless one benefits directly from this government’s plunder, will queue to endorse five more years of sustained taxation with no improved services to match. People are reeling under the weight of heavy taxation. A majority have had to restructure their loan commitments with banks, with some running the risk of retiring while still paying loans because of the restructuring. It is sending people into depression.
Gachagua promised that the next government, after the August 2027 General Election, would scrap some of those taxes. The electorate wants to hear that. Day one on the national stage after his impeachment and he is already striking the right chords with the voters. With his courage and will-power fueled by the grudge he holds against President Ruto, coupled with the fact that he knows his former boss inside out, he will give Ruto a run for his money. This is especially so, should he manage to unite the fragmented Opposition into one front heading into the next General Election.
– BY OUMA OJANGO