Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has once again defended himself against accusations of being a tribal leader, arguing that the claims are part of a deliberate smear campaign meant to weaken him politically.
During an interview on Citizen TV’s The Explainer Show, Gachagua said the tribal tag was a creation of President William Ruto and his allies after their bitter fallout.
According to him, the president has been keen on shaping public opinion by creating narratives that serve his political convenience.He explained that while their relationship was intact, Ruto praised him as a strong mobiliser, a people’s man, and a great strategist who cared about ordinary Kenyans.
But after the fallout, the same qualities were suddenly twisted and he was branded as tribal. In his words, “Narratives are created in this country and my former Boss, William Ruto, is a master of narratives; he is very good. When you are friends, he says so many nice things about you and when he and I were getting along, when I was helping him to be president, he had very kind words about Rigathi Gachagua; a great mobiliser, a people’s man, a great strategist, a man who loves and cares about people’s issues… But the minute we fell out, he labelled me as a tribalist. It is something that he has been preaching in every meeting so that he can justify to Kenyans why, after I helped to make him President, he hounded me out of office.”
Gachagua insisted that his political history does not support the tribal leader narrative. He said that during the 2022 elections, his choice to support Ruto went against tribal lines, as he defied calls from former President Uhuru Kenyatta, who wanted him to back Raila Odinga.
According to him, if he was truly tribal, he would have followed Uhuru’s wishes and supported Raila, who is from a different community but was politically aligned with his kinsman. Instead, he rallied the Mount Kenya region to back Ruto, who is from the Rift Valley.
In defending his record, Gachagua pointed out that his community overwhelmingly voted for Ruto, giving him 87 percent of their support, while the remaining votes went to Raila Odinga, not to David Mwaure who was a Kikuyu candidate.
He contrasted this with the Rift Valley voting pattern, claiming Ruto’s community did not extend their votes to Raila but reserved them all for their kinsman. He argued this shows that he and his people were not tribal in their choices, but rather made decisions that went beyond ethnic boundaries.
He further described himself as a nationalist who has never uttered anything negative about another community. “The man before you is a great nationalist, who loves Kenya, who has never uttered something negative about another community. He loves his community, yes, but that does not mean he hates other communities,” he stated.
At the same time, Gachagua challenged Ruto and his allies to provide proof that he has ever spoken in a manner that insults or demeans another tribe.
“I would like to challenge William Ruto and his cronies to produce a single video of me making negative remarks against another tribe,” he said.
Through his remarks, Gachagua painted the tribal tag as a political tool being used against him. He maintained that his actions speak for themselves, and his political choices have consistently proven his loyalty to the nation rather than to tribal interests.
For him, the accusations are only part of a wider plan to push him out of Kenya’s political scene after being impeached last year.
