Impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has accused the Head of State of oppressing him, claiming he has betrayed the agreement they made prior to taking office in 2022.
In a press conference following his discharge from Karen Hospital, where he was receiving treatment after falling ill last week, Gachagua expressed his disillusionment, stating, “I trusted Ruto, who has since betrayed me.” He also alleged that there were two attempts on his life before the impeachment motion was presented in Parliament.
“I don’t feel safe. On August 30th undercover cover police agents in Kisumu entered my room and one of them tried to poison my food but we detected it and we were able to escape. I was supposed to be killed through poisoning.” “On September 3rd in Nyeri, NIS officers came to Nyeri and tried to poison food belonging to me and Kikuyu elders. I reported the matter to NIS and asked the officers assigned to my office to leave. After attempts to assassinate me failed, this impeachment motion was hatched,” Gachagua claimed.
Gachagua argued that unlike fellow Kenya Kwanza principals including Musalia Mudavadi, Moses Wetangula, Alfred Mutua and Amason Kingi, he did not ask for a pre-election agreement with the President.
“I trusted President William Ruto, the people of Mt.Kenya region trusted him. As we were preparing to go to office, nobody else trusted him. I am the only man who trusted him verbally because we are Christians, we used to go to church together. I believed my fellow Christian, that he would never betray me or my people,” said the impeached DP.
According to Gachagua, the man he trusted has taken him through a storm in the past one year.
“For the last one year, it has been very difficult. But I am a very persevering man, very enduring. What happened on Thursday was a culmination of continuous persecution and stress for a year.”
Gachagua went on to claim that since his admission at the Karen Hospital on Thursday, unnamed persons close to the president have been making calls to find out if his health is further deteriorating.
“I hear many of his people were calling here (hospital) asking whether I am dead, whether I survived, whether I will recover, they were celebrating,” Gachagua told the press on Sunday.
He likened the ‘persecution’ by his former boss to that meted upon Kenneth Matiba during the late President Daniel Moi’s regime.
“When I look at it, it feels like history is repeating itself. President William Ruto seems to be taking the same route that President Moi took with Matiba. He pushed Matiba to the point of getting a stroke and eventually dying. Looking at what the president is doing to me, especially now that I am in the hospital, it feels like he is crippling me and treating me like an animal… I think he wants to take me the Matiba route,” Gachagua said.
He further claimed that he is being persecuted for speaking the truth to power. He pointed to his opposition to the presidential order to evict people from riparian land in Nairobi and his stance against leasing Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to the Indian-owned Adani Company.
