President William Ruto seems to have met his match in his deputy Rigathi Gachagua who is mirroring his boss’s playbook to secure numbers early from vote-rich regions, a tactic that saw him ascend to the presidency.
Following the handshake between former President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM’s Raila Odinga in 2018, then DP Ruto started his campaign for the country’s top job. He started a tour across the country and had his then-boss Uhuru Kenyatta foaming from the mouth for years.
Ruto played the victim for so long and managed to be on the opposite side of his boss at every move and ran such a brilliant grassroots campaign that saw him succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta despite every effort to stop him.
The tables seem to have turned for Ruto as his deputy seems to be facing the mountain while he pleads with him to focus on national politics.
Gachagua’s actions, like that of former DP Ruto, have drawn the ire of the president who has lashed out at those embarking on early campaigns, ordering them to focus on delivering the promises made to Kenyans.
“Let’s focus on delivering the promises to the people of Kenya… not 2027… na sasa Mungu akiamua mambo yake ingine, uta do?” Ruto posed the question during a church service on September 15, 2024.
President Ruto’s allies have also not held back, constantly attacking Gachagua for his ‘lacklustre’ leadership style and accusing him of playing tribal politics.
Leaders such as National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah have accused the DP of failing to unite Kenyans by introducing divisive politics.
“Why would you be so petty and vindictive with leaders because they’re not kneeling for you and not hailing you as the king and greatest of all?” the MP said in a Spice FM interview on September 17, 2024.
Critics have argued that the president sends his cronies to attack and disparage his deputy in a bid to make him fall in line.
At the height of these claims, an impeachment plot was said to be in the works in mid-2024 but was later disregarded as rumours by Gachagua.
“I’ve heard people saying that we leave the government, how can we leave our own government? I want to ask leaders not to make statements that confuse Kenyans. That kind of nonsense should be contained in WhatsApp groups,” Gachagua said in Kirinyaga County in August 2024.
This exemplifies a similar historical pattern of a sour relationship between a president and his deputy, mirroring the UhuRuto ugly duel.
During the 2022 campaign season, then DP Ruto, during the presidential campaigns, had vowed to protect his deputy from humiliation by junior officers if he became president.
He referred to his situation when he claimed that he was under attack from individuals close to former President Kenyatta.
“Very many deputy presidents are fought. It is an unfortunate situation. Given an opportunity, I would not allow my deputy president to be humiliated the way former deputy presidents have been humiliated and the way I have been humiliated,” Ruto said in a Citizen TV interview in April 2021.
The tactics to downplay the DP, however, seem not to be working as he continues to shoot from the hip and even criticises the president’s stance on some issues.
Despite a section of Mt Kenya MPs pledging their allegiance to Interior CS Kithure Kindiki, Gachagua seems unperturbed by the move and continues his clarion call for unity of the mountain.
Read the Original article on https://citizen.digital/
