Government blunders have made Gachagua ‘people’s deputy president’

Few Kenyan politicians are as lucky as Rigathi Gachagua who is riding high on the populist wave despite having suffered the ignominy of impeachment and conviction that removed him from the deputy presidency. The removal showed President William Ruto’s ingenuity in achieving his desires despite the safeguards that constitutional drafters had sought to bestow on the Office of Deputy President against President Daniel arap Moi’s habit of dismissing and appointing vice presidents as he wished. Having opposed the 2010 Constitution during the referendum, Dr Ruto appears uncomfortable with its spirit. Getting rid of his deputy, who repeatedly made the political mistake of uttering that he had been elected to the office rather than appointed, seemed to have become an obsession. He, so declared Uasin Gishu MP Gladys Boss Shollei, ordered his team to remove Gachagua, and they did. Ruto then appointed Kithure Kindiki as DP. It then appeared as if Gachagua had reached his political end but he had not.

The surprise is not that Gachagua was dismissed and Prof Kindiki appointed, it was that he refused to stay down and seemed to gain unexpected popularity. He had tried to gain acceptance as leader of the Mountain because he was the DP and had a few backers like Nyeri Governor Kahiga Mutahi pushing the argument, but his inappropriate utterances showed him to be too immature to lead. Since impeachment and conviction by a compromised Parliament was visibly unfair, it earned him public sympathy. He exploited that sympathy so well that he became an endless headache to the Ruto-Raila broad-based government.

Instead of reducing Gachagua’s popularity, the blunders in Ruto’s government have boosted Gachagua, making him the People’s Deputy President. The blunders includes organised disruption of Gachagua’s public functions including funerals and prayer meetings. The seeming recruitment of Mungiki founder Maina Njenga to counter Gachagua has backfired with Njenga losing face. The big shame was in Njenga disrupting Pastor Dorcas Rigathi’s prayer function. Njenga had, in one of his Ruto and Kindiki support rally, invoked Uhuru Kenyatta’s name but Uhuru found a way of extricating himself from the Ruto political web. Uhuru urged the youth, including his daughter, to use their energy in fighting for their rights. Kindiki, with no popular mandate, struggles to be in good books with Ruto. He looked bad when he seemingly dismissed Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro as an assistant chief while equating Kimani Ichung’wah to a county commissioner. Ndindi, very popular in Kiharu, had avoided being entangled in the politics of dumping Gachagua..

The blunders were also in the utterances, often in Ruto’s presence, of supposed supporters. They seemed not to know the occasions or to care about hurting Kenyans. MP  Dan Wanyama called for isolation of particular Kenyans, reminiscent of the Mau Mau days and Senator Aaron Cheruiyot spoke about how his side was determined to milk the cow dry. Dadaab MP Farah Maalim forgot himself as he lowered his own self-esteem by insulting the mothers of those who criticised Ruto. Such utterances hurt Ruto’s image and promoted Gachagua as being more mature and the ‘Truthful Man’.

The number of politicians who started identifying with Gachagua have increased. They are consistent, articulate, and bold in pointing out corruption and Ruto’s assorted bad policies. Gachagua has buried his political hatchet with Martha Karua. It was during this Kirinyaga get-together that Karua warned Njenga about being used to disrupt functions. Instead of spoiling prayer functions for other people, Karua said, Njenga, should organise his own. Eugene Wamalwa of DAP and Jeremiah Kioni of Jubilee Party were equally receptive to Gachagua joining them and continuing to hammer at Ruto’s short-comings. Ruto, Gachagua declared, should look at himself in the mirror before talking about corruption.

Gachagua has been innovative in addressing the public. By urging people to wait for his signal, he has set the agenda.