Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Sunday, December 2, revealed key details on how he used to evade President William Ruto during the launch and implementation of government projects that he did not support.
Speaking during a televised interview on NTV on Sunday evening, Gachagua, while responding to corruption allegations in the government particularly when he served as a DP and the unpopular position that he found himself in, revealed that some of the projects undertaken by Ruto forced him to devise means to survive being seen as part of.
Gachagua highlighted the Affordable Housing project by the President as one of the unpopular areas where he dodged his boss and mingled with the public whenever there was a state function on the same.
”The President was accusing me of not going to launch houses. I told him that people are not interested in these houses. These citizens are the ones who have employed us on this job and they are not interested,” he added.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua(left) with NTV journalist Ibrahim Karanja during an interview on Sunday, December 1, 2024.
Mwangi
Interestingly, Gachagua narrated that he would escape from the President during an event and go listen to what the public’s view regarding the same project.
To achieve this, he revealed that he would gauge how much time Ruto would take to make a speech during the launch before he would embark on his hiding tactics.
”Many times I would go with the President and he would start speaking on many issues for between 15 to 30 minutes depending on the mood he is in and depending on the response of the crowd,” added Gachagua.
”I would gauge how long he would take while speaking because I had studied him. During this time I would go and mix with the people. They would clearly say they are not interested.”
Additionally, the former DP also revealed that most of his advisory opinions to the President were never taken seriously, mainly from the perceived differences between him and his boss.
According to Gachagua, his skipping of some of the decisions made by the government led to the fallout between him and his boss resulting from a host of differences that mainly occurred behind the scenes, most of which were largely hidden from the public eye.
He added that he tried his best to defend the government on the wrongdoings, but things got out of control when it became clear to the state that he could not defend corruption.
“I defended many things but when it came to issues of corruption and the misuse of public funds I could not defend them, “Gachagua insisted.
Further, the former DP and a one-time lawmaker took a swipe at Ruto’s programs and projects including the Social Health Authority(SHA) and the affordable housing projects, that they undertook together while in office.
”Kenyans need to speak out, Ksh104bn is not Ksh104, it’s serious money and experts have told me that it was possible to improve the existing system that was in the National Hospital Insurance Fund(NHIF) at a cost of between Ksh700 million to Ksh800 million,” Gachagua stated.
Rigathi Gachagua addressing Meru residents on Saturday, September 28. PHOTO/ Rigathi Gachagua