Senator Sifuna says DP Gachagua a 'national nuisance' as standoff with Governor Sakaja drags on

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has castigated Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua for what he calls being out of “constitutional and democratic order” in his recent public utterances.

Gachagua is embroiled in a tiff with Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja, primarily over the latter’s plans to kick out matatus from the Central Business District (CBD).

Sifuna, in a strongly-worded statement shared on his social media platforms on Monday, noted that the country’s second-in-command “is effortlessly turning himself into a national joke, delivering illegal decrees and generally behaving like a DO from a bygone era.”

While Sakaja maintains that he has the full backing of the President William Ruto to restore what he calls the city's lost glory by relocating public service vehicle termini, Gachagua has gone ahead to tell matatu operators and city business people to ignore Sakaja and continue with their businesses.

“There is no Governor that I cannot tell what they need to do... It is there outlined in the Executive Order issued by the president, that I’m the bridge between the National and County Governors,” he said on Sunday as he assured them of government protection against the plan he argues will stifle the economy of Nairobi.

Last month, he was famously quoted claiming Kikuyus are the ones who elected Sakaja. He claimed he “mobilised Kikuyus in Nairobi to vote for him” adding, “any decision that (Sakaja) makes which may affect business in Nairobi, we must first sit and discuss.”

According to Sifuna, most “right-thinking” Kenyans have turned a blind eye to the deputy president’s “unmatched ability to be a national nuisance”, but he has gone too far by saying he is justified to direct Sakaja.

“I firmly believe that Gachagua can be safely ignored, but I was elected by the people to draw the line on our constitutional and democratic order, when anyone, village clowns included, evidently becomes a threat to both… It is this mandate that forces me to now speak on the recent conduct of the Deputy President,” Sifuna said.

 Sifuna told Gachagua to desist from interfering with the operations of county governments, saying the 2010 Constitution, in creating devolved units, made them distinct governments in their own right.

“They are therefore not subject to direction or control by the national government. The Governors do not report to Gachagua. He has no power over county governments and must desist from interfering with their working,” he said.

“Nairobians have stated unequivocally that they want the city to change. Changing the city cannot happen by making it a large kiosk paradise or a big matatu terminus under the guise of "Kazi ni Kazi". In achieving this change, the Nairobi County government cannot and shall not be beholden to tribal blackmail, loose tongues or latter-day pseudo-Mau Mau and their fake "bravery". We must change how the city is run and one individual or tribe cannot hold all of Nairobi hostage,” added Sifuna.

He further trashed what he called Gachagua's “invitation to elevate some tribes to superior positions over others or his ill-informed agenda of attempting to divide Nairobi into tribal boroughs.”

“All tribes in Kenya as well as foreign nationalities dwell in harmony in Nairobi… We were elected by people from all tribes and cannot be told that the interests of any one tribe override the interests of everyone else,” the Nairobi senator said.

While accusing Gachagua of “grossly overestimating himself and his influence over Nairobi politics,” the senator said the real political titans in the capital “are known and they haven't spoken.”

“It's obvious Gachagua is still a hangover from his glory days as an all-powerful DO confiscating chicken from helpless farmers. It's a good time to remind him that those days are long gone,” Sifuna said.

“Let him keep off the running of county governments and concentrate on delivering the many promises he and the President made to Kenyans, strictly in line with the powers he has under the Constitution,” read the statement.

Under the proposed de-congestion plan, all PSVs plying will pick and drop passengers at the Green Park, Desai and Park Road bus termini, as well as the Muthurwa and Railway Club termini.

Gachagua is of the view that moving Matatus to the termini disadvantages city traders who need to move large amounts of cargo in and out of the city.

On Tuesday, Sakaja said he is not in a fight with Gachagua and that the DP should meet with him instead of waging war on the governor in public gatherings.

“I am not in a fight with the deputy president. I respect him as an old man and he is in a higher position than me in terms of the party,” said Sakaja in an interview with Inooro TV.

“There is a way the national government should relate with the county governments. Although I do not want to speak much about him because he is my boss, there might be somewhere we disagreed and it would be best for us to sit and discuss instead of taking them to the public.”

Sakaja said Gachagua should forge a good working relationship with the county’s leadership, noting that the president has been supporting him since his election as county boss in August last year.

“Nairobi will always have a special relationship with the National government. What I have done so far is because of the president,” he said.