Gachagua opens up on State House ‘slap’, how he fell out with Ruto and teary meetings with UDA leader

This eventually led to Mr Gachagua’s impeachment in October last year. 

“I was high-headed as accused, and I was not ready to be pushed over,” Gachagua said.

Speaking on the Obinna Live TV show, Mr Gachagua dismissed as a silly joke rumours that he was once slapped at State House.

“It wasn’t me who was said to have been slapped at State House. Who slaps who? Me? If anyone dared do that, I would have instantly squared it out with him or her, regardless of who they are,” he said.

Mr Gachagua said he had made it clear that he was not willing to be a pushover as Deputy President.

“You people joke too much. No one can slap me. Even when I was DP, Ruto would shout at me and I would shout back. He would bang the table at me, and I would bang it back. So?”

Read: Chaos in Lavington as goons disrupt launch of Rigathi Gachagua's DCP Party 

Mr Gachagua said he lived with Ruto under the maxim: “You do me, I do you,” and it served him well.

He acknowledged that the allegations of him being high-headed and sometimes disrespectful to his boss were "somehow true."

“I’m not the kind of guy you push around. I don’t get pushed around. I occupy my space. I grew up a spoilt child... you know, I was the last-born of my mother’s children. I was mama’s boy,” he said.

Mr Gachagua also said when he loves, he does so with open doors.

“I’m not all that disrespectful. You’ve got to show me disrespect for me to reciprocate in kind. Take a case of my mother, Martha Kirigo... I would cook chapati for her, wash her feet, massage her legs... she is the inspiration behind what you see in me. She hated weaklings around her. May she continue resting in peace since 2019. I miss her,” he said.

Mr Gachagua said his mother instilled in him the habit of refusing to succumb to fear.

“There was a time I was beaten up by a boy my age while playing in the village, and I ran home crying to my mother. Instead of consoling me, she beat me up again. She asked me what that boy had that I didn’t. She told me to go out there and fight,” he said.

"She warned me that if I always ran to her crying, I risked being overrun by the cruel world... That I too had to fight for my space. That changed my life.”

Read: Ruto gets a taste of his own medicine as Gachagua reads from 2022 script

He said observing how gruffly President Ruto treated those around him, he knew his mother’s spirit would be disturbed if he surrendered and allowed himself to be a pushover.

The former Deputy President said his father taught him never to fight with women and to never take life too seriously or too lightly.

“My father told me to always back down when women are angry, since doing so helps them back down too — and peace is found,” he said.

“My father also taught me never to take life too seriously or too lightly... just stay in the middle. If something is not working, abandon it and pursue something else.”

Mr Gachagua said his father died aged 105.

“I feel I have his genes, and I think I’ll do 110... I’m 60 today, so… 50 years to go.”

He said he was prepared for a fight during his impeachment, which is why he rejected President Ruto’s offer to resign as a soft landing.

“It’s not Ruto who employed me; it was Kenyans. President Ruto had no business telling me to resign. His only role was to use his loyalists to impeach me. It’s for you to decide whether I’ve staged a fight or been a pushover,” he said.

Read: Blow to Gachagua as Mt Kenya allies abandon him

Reflecting on his short stint as Deputy President, Mr Gachagua said it makes him hate himself for how he allowed himself to be humiliated.

“Don’t joke with President Ruto... his ability to con, deceive, and infiltrate is unmatched. It’s a living wonder how he managed to pull a fast one on me, my community, the clergy, and the country,” he said.

He said he still keeps President Ruto’s photos hanging in his living room.

“Ruto was a frequent visitor here. My wife cooked for him countless times when he came asking for my support. I decided to keep his photos hanging in my home even after the impeachment — as symbols of betrayal,” he said.

“This is the man I invested heavily in—wealth, emotions, and risks—making enemies I had no business making, only for him to mobilise his friends to impeach me,” he added.

Mr Gachagua said the photos are a constant reminder to him, his wife, and his two sons of how cautious they must be in trusting people.

“Conmanship and deception for Ruto are in a class of their own. He would even pray for us in my house, yet my wife is a pastor. I didn’t see it coming. I supported him without any written agreement. And then—bang! It was the first time someone took me in so easily,” he said.

Read: Gachagua, opposition leaders vow to make Ruto one-term President

Mr Gachagua said sometimes he watches Ruto on TV and is left bewildered.

“I can’t imagine this is the same Ruto who cried in my house. Torrents of tears... A grown man crying made me feel for him. There was a time I was under immense pressure to return to Uhuru Kenyatta’s camp. Ruto panicked and came to me crying, begging me not to abandon him. He said without me, he was finished. He pleaded with me to stay by his side,” he said.

But he said President Ruto taught him a lifelong lesson: never trust anyone at face value, no matter the emotions involved.

“Even as I craft an alliance to make him a one-term president—which, by God, I will—there is no way I will ever again rely on verbal trust. Everything must be in black and white, with witnesses and commissioners of oaths present, and with enough copies for future reference,” he said.

“Ruto conned me out of my support through tears. He made me abandon my kinsman, Uhuru Kenyatta. From now on, I will vet everyone I associate with, from lineage to current character traits,” he added.

The former Deputy President said the problem with Kenya is President Ruto, and unless he is replaced, no good will come from his government.

“He is the government, he advises his own government, and he also oversights it. That’s why he has sacked more than half his first Cabinet and nothing has changed. Ruto advises his advisors on how to advise him. This is a zero-sum presidency and government,” he said.

“President Ruto is so talented in lying that he can wake up and claim he spoke to people who died a decade ago, lie that all abduction and extrajudicial killing victims have been reunited with their families, and auction the country in the name of development. President Ruto has lied so many times that he’s now become a victim of believing in his own lies,” he said.

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