From my native Kabras, it is not advisable to lash out at a man whose fortunes are down.

Politically speaking, the chips of immediate former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua have remained down since his impeachment late last year.

It is in line with adhering to the counsel of the wise of Kabras that I have restrained myself from commenting on anything Gachagua for the last seven months.

That does not mean I have not disagreed with him, his antics and utterances. I have. Gachagua has not conducted himself well since his impeachment. He has operated below par.

I have run out of patience. It is time for me to call him out. In many aspects, civility, respect, decorum, tolerance and humility are seriously wanting on the part of the immediate former Mathira MP.

If President William Ruto wins the 2027 presidential race, one would need to look at the role Gachagua would have played to that end.

By this time last year, Ruto’s ratings were at their lowest. Save for Kenya Kwanza lawmakers and senior members of the Executive, the entire country was against the president’s policies, especially the 2024 controversial Finance Bill.

That resentment was demonstrated through the persistent street protests by the youth, widely referred to as Gen-Zs, that culminated in their invading Parliament on June 25.

However, through his acts of omission and commission couched in recklessness, tribal bigotry, political exclusion and outright arrogance, Gachagua has handed Ruto a lifeline that could sustain him to the point of possibly earning him a second term in office in 2027.

Public outbursts

Indeed, Gachagua attracted public sympathy during and after his impeachment. But the sympathy did not last long. It soon evaporated due to his own insensitive public outbursts, hubris and untrammelled temperament.

In spite of his feudal approach to politics then, just like now, when Gachagua still served as the Deputy President, I was a strong supporter of his war against illicit brews and abuse of drugs, a mission he executed with so zeal and conviction. He did his work well there.

However, since being ejected from office, Gachagua has failed to demonstrate anything national about his brand of politics. He has failed me, and perhaps millions of other Kenyans.

What I see today is a Gachagua who is so brazenly determined to hand William Ruto another five-year tenancy at State House come 2027.

Two weeks ago, Gachagua launched his Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) at a low-key event in Nairobi.

Yes, the function remained low-key until some goons appeared on the scene to unleash mayhem.

Goons have become a common feature in Gachagua’s events to a level that it is not easy to tell whether they are invited by organisers or hired by rivals.

This is one urgent matter that Gachagua has to stem. His refusal to report the numerous incidents to the police for the goons to be pursued, leaves a lot of questions begging answers.

Since launching his party, Gachagua has engaged in activities that give the Opposition a bad name and make Ruto a saint.
A day after the launch, Gachagua invited a popular podcaster to his Wamunyoro home to give a two-hour interview.

During the conversation, Gachagua spewed one set of vitriol after another, all of them aimed at Ruto in the same fashion and character that he has done in the last seven months.

However, it was not until he said the 2007/8 post-election violence would look like a Christmas party if the 2027 presidential contest was to be rigged in favour of incumbent Ruto, that Gachagua lost everything.

He and his surrogates have since tried to wriggle him out of the acerbic utterances. The best he should have done was to retract the statement and apologise to Kenyans. Not to defend it. Not somersaulting.

Gachagua’s remarks were base, cheap, highly irresponsible, divisive and pedestrian indeed. I am surprised that there are some adults in his political fold who are still attempting to justify and edit Gachagua’s utterances.

Truth is that Gachagua’s remarks regarding political violence isolated him from the wheat in Kenya’s political arena, whether in Opposition or Government.

He identified himself as a leader who belongs to the past, not present or the future that Kenya desires.

The Kenya of the past thrived on ethnic supremacy and exclusion, violence, threats, fear, despondency and displacement.

Public outbursts

These are vices that define the seamy side of our politics and which Gachagua feels proud to belong to. Unfortunately.

On Monday this week, Gachagua called a media conference at his residence to state that his life was in danger and went ahead to repeat the same things he has been saying in the last seven months.

Only that this time he claimed that the Ruto regime wants to kill him using chemicals,” in the same manner” that the Government did to the late multi-party crusader and Second Liberation icon Kenneth Matiba.

It appears Gachagua knows what happened to Matiba. He should. He was a well-placed State operative at that time.

As the Personal Assistant to then Head of Civil Service and a speech writer to then President Daniel arap Moi, we should not doubt Gachagua when he insinuates that he knows what happened to Matiba.

However, what we must doubt is his intended connotation that he is some sort of national messiah, a martyr in the waiting to be compared to Matiba.

That balderdash is what we must reject. Gachagua is not a crusader of freedom and reforms. He was comfortable on the side of the oppressor when Kenyans lost their lives and limbs in their quest for a free and just Kenya. Matiba was one of them. He should not purport to identify with anything to do with liberation.

Gachagua has never told us why he wants to be president.

Instead, he has consistently advocated for the isolated supremacy of his Murima community and groused for times without number about his personal differences with Ruto.

Both Gachagua and the President have told us through publicised interviews that their falling out had everything to do with money, not democracy.

Gachagua now wants us to side with him because someone elbowed him from the Eating Table. Not because of anything to do with the welfare of the Kenyan people and the future of the Kenya Nation-State.

Gachagua wants Kenyans to side with him today in his personal war with Ruto.

Will that work? I highly doubt. As I see it, Gachagua is a threat to the Opposition in Kenya, not to Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza regime.

Each day, Gachagua is working towards Ruto’s re-election. The Opposition does not need a more devastating enemy within. Time will tell.

The author is a Revise Editor with the People Daily newspaper