Lawyers representing the embattled Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua were on Thursday, October 17, 2024, taken through the task of explaining why they played a video of President William Ruto using the ‘shareholding’ term.

The question was raised by Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot who tasked DP’s legal team to explain their intention and if the video was played to justice that it was a wrong passed from the boss to his junior.

“To the counsel of the DP, the clips of the then DP played by the team, could we read it to mean that there’s admission on your part that if it was done by a then sitting DP then please allow the current president to do the same? Cheruyoit posed.

Tom Macharia’s response

Tom Macharia who defended the DP against the shareholding claim by taking the senators through the copy of the Kenya Kwanza agreement, insisted that the video was not played to incriminate President William Ruto.

Macharia emphasised that the defence team played the video to show that indeed Gachagua was assisting his boss in executing their pre-election agreement.

“Our position was that the address in Murang’a was in fact in confirmation of the agreements. The president was merely saying that they are implementing the agreements they agreed upon,” Tom Macharia submitted before the Senate.

Kufa Dereva, Kufa Makanga

Further, Macharia clarified that the purpose of the clip was not to ride on the popular tag which sought to eject from office both DP Gachagua and President Ruto.

He made it clear that the defence team played the video to appeal to the senators to save the DP and his boss.

“It is not to say ‘kufa makanga, kufa dereva’ It is to say ‘okoeni makanga na muokoe dereva,” he added.

Ruto’s comments

In the video played by advocate Tom Macharia while prosecuting his case for DP Gachagua, the President used the word shareholders while explaining how the Murang’a people had benefitted from the Kenya Kwanza government arrangement.

“Kama kuna watu shareholders was kubwa kwa hii serikali ni watu was Murang’a,” Ruto was heard saying the video played by Gachagua’s legal representative.

In cross-examination, Macharia asked the mover of the motion Mwengi Mutuse: “When the President says to the people of Murang’a that ‘Nyinyi ni shareholders wakubwa wa serikali’, is his words likely to incite ethnic hatred or violence?”

In response, Mwengi Mutuse said: “The President is not on trial.”