DP Gachagua rubbishes claims of bullying MPs: ‘I’m just a truthful person!’

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has refuted claims that he bullies and intimidates Members of Parliament and other elected leaders in the ruling Kenya Kwanza administration.

Gachagua, who spoke exclusively to Citizen TV’s Sam Gituku on Friday at his Karen residence, distanced himself from the accusations clarifying that his truthfulness and straightforwardness are being mistaken for bullying.

The DP instead shifted blame to leaders who have made the said allegations, saying that their issue with him is that he listens to the people at the grassroots level and does what they tell him.

“I don’t bully anybody, I am just truthful. I just ask Members of Parliament to listen to the people and the ground and they call that bullying. It is not bullying it is just being truthful,” he said.

According to the Deputy President, the people accusing him of bullying are just in denial that his sentiments are factual because they want to hold on to lies.

On why most of MPs from his Nyeri home tuff have abandoned him and called him names, DP Gachagua argued that they had been intimidated by a “higher power” in a bid to force him out of his position.

“We have a problem in this country, people do not want to be told the truth. People want to live a lie. Those MPs from my county are very good people, but they have a lot of coercion and intimidation,” he stated.

“If the MPs want to be coerced to fight me or seem to fight me, that is up to them. They have a date with the people in the fullness of time and I am not bothered.”

The DP poured cold water on the insults and perceived threats to impeach him, maintaining that he was only concerned about what the electorates think about him.

“It doesn’t really matter…what matters is that Nyeri people are with me. Forty four MCAs are with me, the Governor of Nyeri is with me,” he said.

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has been at loggerheads with the DP in the recent past, referring to him as a bully over his perceived involvement in the capital’s affairs.

"You can’t be bullying people for two years and when you are only mentioned for just one week, you start crying. Bullies are the biggest cowards. You even went to the forest; I don’t know where. If you want respect, respect other leaders,” Sakaja said during a UDA Delegates Conference at Bomas in June 2024. 

Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwa has also sustained similar attacks on the country’s second-in-command accusing him of belittling other elected leaders.

According to Ichung'wah, the majority of Mt Kenya MPs dissociated themselves from the Deputy President due to intimidation and threats.

"Many of them shudder in fear because of this desperation and attempts to intimidate them because you're desperate to pool people from the region so that you may use those people to mask your true character and to blackmail the government and the President," the MP said at a past rally.