Murkomen hits out at Gachagua over tribal bias, policy incompetence
By Faith Lagat, January 13, 2026Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has launched a blistering attack on former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, accusing him of tribal bias, policy incompetence, and using the fight against alcohol and drug abuse as a tool for personal gain.
In a heated interview on January 12, 2026, Murkomen directly addressed Gachagua’s record. “First, let me start by saying that the first part of the statement is very unfortunate. Because the deputy president of Kenya does not fight drugs in his village or in his region,” Murkomen said, criticising what he sees as Gachagua’s narrow, tribal lens on national issues.
He stressed that national leaders must tackle problems countrywide.
“Yeah, when you are a deputy president, even Professor Kindiki, even the president, even me as a cabinet secretary, I can’t come here and talk about drugs in Elgeyo Marakwet, drugs in Eldoret, drugs in Rift Valley,” Murkomen explained.
“As a cabinet secretary, my concern is to fight drugs and alcohol and everything that is wrong in the country, wherever it is and wherever it may be.”
Progress in drug control
Murkomen pointed to achievements in places once notorious for drug trafficking. “Mombasa used to be a very notorious area for many years, the leading. But now the figures have gone down because of the efforts that government has put in place over time,” he noted, crediting consistent actions across administrations, including operations under former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“I was with President Uhuru, for example, when we went to burn that ship that was carrying drugs, when we went to bomb that ship in Mombasa in the high seas,” Murkomen added.
Misconduct and incompetence
The CS criticised Gachagua’s approach as rooted in tribalism.
“So the point is that the first unfortunate thing about the former deputy president is his obsession with tribalism when it comes to fighting against anything, whether it is education, whether it is alcohol, he sees everything through the prism of his own personal, parochial, tribal angle,” Murkomen declared.
Murkomen claimed that his actions in office were driven by personal gains, he asserted that Gachagua systematically extorted money from businesses seeking to sell alcohol, alleging that entrepreneurs had to meet him personally to obtain licenses or approvals.
“It’s very clear. And I’m willing to swear an affidavit. Everything he did was to extort money from potential companies that are selling alcohol. For you to get licensed, you have to see me. For you to do this, you have to see me,” Murkomen charged, painting a picture of alleged corruption and abuse of office during Gachagua’s tenure.
He dismissed the former deputy president’s rehabilitation efforts. “You had a scheme that was called a rehabilitation scheme. That was absolutely, you cannot show one rehabilitation centre engaged in or supported, except you see money being expended, but you don’t see the people being rehabilitated,” Murkomen said.
He also attacked Gachagua’s competence.
“The worst part of the former deputy president is that I had never seen a more incompetent public servant who understood no single subject in government operations or government policy,” Murkomen said. “The reason why you see the former deputy president ranting all the time is that he’s covering his incompetence.”
“So I think that when it comes to the discussion on drugs and alcohol abuse, the last person to give us a lecture is the former deputy president, because his record is known to be dismal… his record in terms of understanding public policy is very dismal. So it cannot be a point of reference.”