Gachagua: I was pressured by my community to speak about shares in govt
By Arnold Ngure, August 26, 2025Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathy Gachagua has defended himself from the ‘shares’ remark, stating that he was under pressure from his community to ensure that President William Ruto holds his end of the bargain.
Speaking during an interview at his Karen home on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, Gachagua indicated that the remarks were to compel Ruto to ensure that the Mount Kenya region received its fair share of agreed-upon development and government positions.
“Government formation is a process, and a coalition government is formed based on agreements. I sat down with William Ruto, and on behalf of the mountain people, negotiated our expectations from his government,” Gachagua said.
40 per cent of govt
“He did negotiate with me that he wanted 70 per cent of our votes in exchange for 40 per cent of the government. It was not written; it was a gentleman’s agreement.”
Adding: “He sat down with the people of Western Kenya; they were wiser than I, and demanded an agreement. He demanded 70 per cent of their vote, and they demanded 30 per cent of the government. He also sat with Amason Kingi from the coast, and Kingi demanded certain things that were to be done when the government was formed.”
Under pressure
“I was simply following the honouring of that agreement that what was promised must be honoured. I was saying that we had made an agreement to invest in the government, and we had our expectations,” Gachagua said.
“I was under a lot of pressure from the people I had negotiated on their behalf that what we agreed on should be honoured. That is when Ruto turned against me because he did not want to honour what we had agreed on.”
Gachagua also revealed that he had negotiated for at least eight cabinet positions in the Kenya Kwanza government alongside other state positions after his region overwhelmingly voted for Ruto.
“I negotiated for positions, development, roads, coffee and tea reforms and guaranteed minimum returns. We did economic charters with Ruto. He came to me because he wanted votes from my region; that is the truth,” Gachagua said.
“It was not that he just loved me or that he was my friend. It was quid pro quo. I negotiated ministries of Interior, Finance, Water, Agriculture, Lands, Attorney General, and Trade.”
We started having problems when he started to take away what we had negotiated.