Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was not the only individual removed from the State House diary WhatsApp group, confirmed Citizen TV journalist Sam Gituku. During the popular program News Gang on Thursday night, Gituku stated that the screenshot circulating on social media regarding the alleged group is genuine.
“I can confirm here that removals happened. It appears that everybody who was a member of that group, based on what you can see, including the president, was removed,” he said.
Gituku’s remarks came after Gachagua, in an interview he conducted last Friday, claimed that he had been removed from the group along with some of his staff.
“We have a WhatsApp group diary for the President where I’m there; my Chief of Staff is there, and all his issues are there, so we align. About a week ago, we were removed from that diary, so we are not able to follow exactly what is going on, we are unable to align,” Gachagua stated.
He alleged that there was mischief at play to remove him from the President’s diary, which he suggested was intended to portray him as an “abscondee.”
“Sometimes they want me to get late so that it appears disrespectful. I want to ask the people who work around the presidency not to create conflict between the President and me. I’m the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya elected by the people and the Principal Assistant,” Gachagua emphasized.
Gituku also noted that it was unclear whether a new group was formed after the removals or if the same group reconvened.
In response to the claims, Dennis Itumbi, Head of Creative Economy and Special Projects in the Office of the President, shared a screenshot of the group and clarified that Gachagua was not the only one removed.
“It was not just Gachagua who had been removed. The President was the first person to be removed from the said WhatsApp group. Yes, the Diary group was deleted. What DP @rigathi fails to mention is that the President was removed even before him, and the group was permanently deleted due to highly classified documents being shared in WhatsApp groups,” Itumbi explained.
