Why Gachagua has become Ruto’s worst nightmare

An unfazed, combative Rigathi Gachagua is on the road to becoming President William Ruto’s nemesis. Intra house glee and gloating that followed his impeachment as deputy president have disappeared to be replaced with anger, suspicion and recriminations.

Last week’s acrimonious verbal exchanges between Dr Ruto and Mr Gachagua while the former was on a tour of western Kenya only succeeded in scoring points off Ruto. The epithets that Ruto used to denigrate, describe and discredit his former deputy inadvertently underscored the fact that the President’s decisions and choices are mostly flawed.

Among them are the Finance Bill 2024 that he was forced to withdraw, a Cabinet he has reshuffled three times in as many months, the new university funding model and the Housing Levy, privatisation of 11 parastatals, Maisha Namba, the appointment of Cabinet Administrative Secretaries and the Shakahola commission that the court blocked.

Ruto gave us Gachagua. We must ask; what attributes did he consider when he chose him as his presidential running mate in 2022? Was it because they shared ideologies and he knew Gachagua was smart, and therefore a competent deputy? Or, was it because he believed Gachagua was clueless, manipulable, a tribalist who was only useful in drawing Mount Kenya region votes to his corner?

If the first is true, then Gachagua’s rushed impeachment is an indictment on our collective leadership that comes through as amoral.

If the second is the case, it means Ruto betrayed Kenyans from the outset by knowingly foisting an unworthy individual on them for selfish gain. He cannot now turn around and regale them with Gachagua’s real and perceived shortcomings, he must take responsibility for that.

It’s evident Ruto boxed himself into a corner with his unpopular policies and the indiscretions of his garrulous aides, including the decision to eject Gachagua. To actually call Gachagua a tribalist is tantamount to the kettle calling the pot black.

If appointments to State offices, including chairmen of boards and parastatals can be used to gauge tribalism in Kenya today, the President’s score would be very high.  

Oft said politics is a game of numbers. Those who juggle the numbers adroitly win. Gachagua has proven he is nobody’s fool, and has deliberately set out to chip away at Ruto’s numbers in the mountain region. The gains he has made so far are alarming, which doesn’t sit well with Ruto for ruffling his feathers. 

Already, the Gen Z demographic is alienated from Ruto by many factors, including police brutality, abductions, runaway joblessness, disappearances and the killings of youth that have markedly worsened under the Kenya Kwanza government.

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s exhortation to the youth to stand up for their rights must have warned Ruto that he is not standing on firm ground.

Incidentally, Gen Z will be the majority in 2027 unless a scheme is birthed to deny them registration as voters. It doesn’t help that Raila’s base that Ruto hoped to inherit is rebelling, and Kenya Kwanza is facing implosion as ‘outsiders’ dine at the high table while ‘insiders’ eat crumbs. 

Even as Ruto tries to woo western by enumerating what he has in store for it, the reality is that development is not abstract; it has to be tangible.

If you can’t see what is being talked about, it doesn’t exist. We live now, not in the future and success can only be measured in what has already been achieved.

As the Mulembe nation waits for the promised goodies –  for the umpteenth time – it must remember that it’s almost three years since Kenya Kwanza was installed. What Kenyans were promised would happen within 100 days is yet to happen, and worse, most of it is not even a mirage on the horizon today.

If people, collectively, but more so regionally are gullible enough to fall for the ‘tumetenga‘ and ‘kufikia mwaka ujao’ lullabies, it is going to be a very long wait.