Political activist and lawyer Willis Otieno has come out to defend the former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua after he was accused by several MPs aligned to Kenya Kwanza of being behind the chaos witnessed on June 25.

While speaking on a popular podcast on July 2, Otieno defended the former deputy president, saying that it is the wish of the government and its allies for Gachagua to be seen as the one behind the protests or to be the face of the chaos witnessed during the June 25 Gen Z commemoration. According to Willis, this is because they can deal with Gachagua as a politician.

“That is their desire; they wish that Gachagua were the face of this public demand for accountability because they can deal with Gachagua as a politician. He is not. The very fact that people in their numbers are independently demanding accountability is beyond the control of legacy politicians,“ Otieno said.

He went on to state that in the current protests, people are coming out in large numbers to demand accountability, and this, according to him, is beyond the control of legacy politicians. He added that the government’s desire is to have someone to blame—preferably Gachagua, a legacy politician they can banter with—so as to reduce the demand for accountability into a political contest between Ruto and Gachagua.

“Their desire is to have a face in the ilk of Gachagua, who is a legacy politician, that they can now banter with to reduce the demand for accountability to a political contestation between Gachagua and Ruto. No, it is not; we can’t fall for that,” he added.

He further argued that the government is trying to force a face onto the protests, but this will not succeed, as the uproar among Kenyans is organic.

MPs accusing Gachagua

On June 26, 2025, several Kenyan MPs accused former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua of orchestrating the chaos during the Gen Z-led protests on June 25, 2025, which commemorated the 2024 anti-Finance Bill demonstrations.

National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah claimed that Gachagua directed the violence, stating that his elderly parents were targeted in Kikuyu as an act of revenge.

Suna East MP Junet Mohamed, who authored a motion calling for investigations, labelled the protests a politically motivated attempt to overthrow the government and accused Gachagua of ethnic mobilisation in Nyeri, Juja, and Murang’a.

Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa demanded Gachagua’s immediate arrest for mobilising goons to target businesses. He also criticised court-imposed restrictions on police use of force, claiming they enabled the chaos.