For five years, he worked as President Uhuru Kenyatta’s personal aide. Rigathi Gachagua, a Mathira MP who was selected as Deputy President William Ruto’s running mate yesterday, is one of the Head of State’s harshest opponents.
The sequence of events is “unbelievable” even to Mr Gachagua.
Between 2002 and 2006, the guy who planned President Kenyatta’s daily engagements was promoted to second in command in the Dr Ruto hierarchy. The DP and Mr Gachagua, by coincidence, had a falling out with the president.
“Uhuru has really changed. He was really a good man when I used to manage his diary. He was an excellent candidate to handle and an easy person. He was trusting and reliable,” says the MP.
Mr Gachagua served as Mr Kenyatta’s Personal Assistant during a crucial period when the latter launched his first presidential bid against the late former President Mwai Kibaki, who was supported by a united opposition under Narc.
The Mathira MP claims that his support for Mr Kenyatta caused him to clash with his family, who were staunch supporters of Mr Kibaki. Nderitu Gachagua, his now-deceased elder brother and former Governor of Nyeri, had challenged him to choose between the family’s position and Mr Kenyatta.
Mr Gachagua, who worked in the Provincial Administration for almost a decade, claims that President Kenyatta is an excellent student of politics, and that his candidacy acquired pace throughout the campaigns leading up to the 2002 General Election.
He claims that they cooperated informally after Mr Kenyatta was elected President, but that things altered during his second term.
Mr Kenyatta, according to the outspoken MP, introduced him to Dr Ruto in 2002, and the two developed a close friendship.
“I like Ruto; I believe he can change the country. I like his economic revival plan and subscribe to it. It will better the lives in the Mount Kenya region and the country at large. I’d vouch for him anytime,” he says.
He says when he was in Kanu, he became an arbiter on two or three occasions when Mr Kenyatta and Dr Ruto differed.
“There was one occasion the two had disagreed while still in Kanu; when Uhuru moved to support Kibaki while Ruto gravitated towards Raila. I would be the go-between is such cases,” he says.
The MP says he has had run-ins with the government because of supporting the DP.
“I have known Ruto for two decades. He is my neighbour in Karen, and our families are close, plus I really like him. He is a critical thinker and sharp upstairs,” says Mr Gachagua.
He says he keeps his friends and will not desert Dr Ruto because of a fall-out with Mr Kenyatta.
“Some people close to Uhuru say that I should drop Ruto if I support Uhuru. I wonder, because the two are in different situations; one is the outgoing president and the other is seeking to get it. There is no conflict at all. I don’t abandon friends,” says Mr Gachagua.
Mr Gachagua says after the President lost in the 2002 elections, former Cabinet ministers John Michuki, Njenga Karume and his late brother Nderitu Gachagua, who was Nyeri governor, told him to dump Mr Kenyatta and take up a Permanent Secretary position, but he declined and stood with the then official opposition leader.
He says today he is surprised to see his former boss watch as he faces political persecution for supporting Dr Ruto, and vows not to drop his support for the DP.
Mr Gachagua gives credit to the President for conceding defeat when he lost in the 2002 elections.
“When his political legacy is written, his gracious acceptance of defeat will be one of the highlights of his career. In his autobiography, it warrants a chapter,” he says.
He says despite their differences, he respects the President and is indebted to him for helping the family move the body of the former Nyeri governor from London to the country and later with burial arrangements.
“Even when I was campaigning in 2017, I told my people that even if I lose the election and Uhuru wins, I will be okay. “In the repeat elections I used my money to brand the vehicles and billboards in Nyeri. I literally ran and oversaw the county campaigns,” he said.
