Kenya’s deputy president in the eye of the storm

Kenya’s embattled Deputy President, Rigathi Gachagua, calls himself the “truthful man”, attributing his outstanding rise to the truth that he speaks fact to energy.

However as he faces impeachment proceedings, he says these troubles are additionally a results of his outspoken nature.

Earlier than he was elected MP in 2017, little was identified in regards to the man who would, in 5 brief years, rise to change into Kenya’s second-in-command.

Not many individuals exterior Gachagua’s central Kenya constituency had heard of him or his fashion of politics.

Gachagua captured the limelight within the run-up to the 2022 elections, when he vehemently opposed President Uhuru Kenyatta’s selection of most popular successor.

Kenyatta was campaigning closely for former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

However Gachagua allied himself with William Ruto, Kenyatta’s then deputy, who was angling for the presidency that his boss didn’t need to bequeath to him.

At political rallies and in media circles, Gachagua railed in opposition to Kenyatta, typically in phrases that different politicians would discover cringeworthy.

“Don’t kill me the way in which your father killed JM Kariuki,” he stated at a rally in July 2022, referring to an MP who was killed in 1975 during the administration of Jomo Kenyatta, the nation’s first president and the daddy of Uhuru Kenyatta.

To this present day, nobody has been discovered responsible of Kariuki’s demise.

Earlier than he turned Kenya’s deputy president, police raided Gachagua’s house and arrested him in relation to a corruption and money-laundering case. The fees have been dropped after he and Ruto took energy following the 2022 election.

He had helped Ruto win by marshalling help in Mount Kenya – the most important voting bloc within the nation. Each Gachagua and Kenyatta come from there. Kenyatta had tried to rally Mount Kenya’s voters to throw their weight behind Odinga, however he failed.

Lengthy earlier than Kenyatta turned president in 2013, Gachagua had labored carefully with him, together with as his private assistant for 5 years.

However after teaming up with Ruto, Gachagua went from being Kenyatta’s “confidant” to certainly one of his harshest critics.

Nevertheless, since falling out along with his present boss, Gachagua has apologised to Kenyatta, saying it was “silly” of him to have “fought my very own brother”.

This humility is in sharp distinction to his rhetoric as Ruto’s running-mate – analyst Javas Bigamo had even described Gachagua as a “feared political bulldog that Ruto wanted to have the ability to counter President Kenyatta within the central area”.

Gachagua was praised as a superb mobiliser, who had the ear of unusual individuals on the bottom.

But he was most likely not the individual many anticipated to take the deputy place, provided that Gachagua had solely being a politician for 5 years and was up in opposition to extra seasoned candidates.

Ruto defined he had chosen Gachagua as a result of “he’s a kind of leaders who’re enthusiastic about unusual individuals”.

Politics professional Bobby Mkangi beforehand informed the BBC that Gachagua’s potential to barter his technique to the highest “contemplating different names that have been fronted and have been identified nationally” was “fairly one thing”.

However simply two years after ascending to energy, that potential appears to have fizzled out – leaving Gachagua butting heads with the president and able the place many legislators are pushing for his elimination.

He stands accused of corruption, money-laundering, gross misconduct, insubordination and bullying public officers and 6 different acts of wrongdoing.

Because the movement was being tabled in parliament on Tuesday, the MP introducing the movement, Mwengi Mutuse, stated that 291 out of 349 MPs had signed the doc pushing for Gachagua’s elimination.

The signatures of two-thirds – or 233 – of all MPs are required to question him.

Mkangi now says the deputy president has been “unable to consolidate the help of his base and the politicians round him”.

Gachagua has all the time been accused of being brash and aggressive – it was one of many causes some argued in opposition to his choice to the working mate place previous to the 2022 election. However in current months, this criticism has elevated.

He denies this evaluation of his character, together with assertions that he alienates his fellow politicians.

He says all he does is “communicate the reality”, which he insists has made him unpopular inside sure political factions.

“I can’t compromise my rules,” he stated over the weekend as requires his impeachment got here to a crescendo.

Gachagua has typically recognized himself as a baby of the Mau Mau freedom fighters, who battled British colonial rule.

He was born in 1965 to folks who he has stated have been well-known for his or her involvement within the wrestle for freedom. His father constructed and serviced weapons and his mom was a courier of ammunition and meals for the fighters, Gachagua stated.

His lineage has painted him as a champion of individuals in central Kenya, a lot of whom are descendants of independence wrestle icons, however nonetheless proceed to battle for financial freedom.

A preferred catchphrase related to the deputy president is “don’t contact the mountain”, a reference to his help base within the Mount Kenya area. Nevertheless, he has additionally been accused of selling tribalism relatively than being a unifying determine.

However Gachagua has defended himself, insisting that talking for the central Kenya area is just not the identical as antagonising different communities.

Earlier than becoming a member of politics, Gachagua had had an extended profession.

After finishing college, he started working as a public administrator in authorities, and as a district officer in numerous places throughout the nation.

The district directors of that point, throughout Daniel arap Moi’s presidency, have been identified for his or her high-handedness. It’s an accusation that has caught with him, together with in current circumstances.

He labored as Kenyatta’s private assistant between 2001 and 2006 – at a time when Kenyatta was a minister, presidential candidate and later the chief of the opposition.

Gachagua is a rich politician, having constructed a fortune in enterprise over time. He’s married to a pastor, Dorcas, they usually have two grownup sons.

In 2017, he vied for the Mathira constituency seat, profitable the place that had earlier been held by his elder brother, Nderitu Gachagua.

It’s right now that Gachagua’s fiery character and political skills began attracting consideration.

But his public utterances, earlier than and since he turned deputy president, have at occasions been seen as blunders or straight-up disgraceful feedback.

He stated final 12 months that authorities was like a shareholding firm, with those who voted for the present administration being extra deserving of presidency appointments and contracts.

Senator Danson Mungatana final week stated Gachagua’s phrases have “marginalised sections of Kenyans, created and proceed to intensify ethnic tensions”.

Gachagua has typically defended himself, however just lately he acknowledged that in the long run, it could be the exact same factor that catapulted him to the highest that can result in his downfall: his manner with phrases.