Mathira Member of Parliament Eric Wamumbi has said that he urged Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua to stay in government amid a fallout between the second-in-command and President William Ruto.

Wamumbi, who has been at loggerheads with the DP given the recent utterances between the two, said he told Gachagua not to leave the government to form a new party for 2027 and instead should stay put. 

“I begged him that we stay in government since we already have enough seats and should work using what we have.

“I was the only person he met that day; we talked for hours, and I tried to tell him that his advisers were misleading him, just as they had misled another president,” Wamumbi told Inooro TV. 

According to the first-term MP, Gachagua, he trusted President Ruto and said he would not have a binding legal agreement when they formed the government after the 2022 general elections.

“Gachagua told me he was not going to have a written agreement with President Ruto because he trusted him,” Wamumbi added. 

Demand list

The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) legislator, however, revealed that Gachagua had a demand list before the Kenya Kwanza government was formed.

“He (Gachagua) told us that after we won the election, he would then go to the president with a list of seats that would benefit the people of Central Kenya.

“The deputy president was seeking nine key seats that he believed would benefit the Central Kenyan people,” he stated. 

Ministries of Agriculture, Treasury, Interior, Water, Lands, and Public Service, as well as Central Bank Governor and Attorney General posts, are positions that Gachagua negotiated for, according to the lawmaker.

With the rift within the Kazi ni Kazi party looking to widen, Wamumbi said he told the former Mathira MP that the path he is taking in the Mount Kenya region is wrong.

“I told him that he had told the Gikuyu people that he never slept and was always watching out for them, but he was now leading them down the wrong path,” he said.

Gachagua and Wamumbi have been at loggerheads recently, especially in the fight against illicit brew in Mount Kenya. The fight between the two came out despite the fact that the DP handpicked Wamumbi, campaigned for him, and even negotiated his dowry when he married Murang’a Women Representative Betty Maina.

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