One-term MP, Deputy President, then civilian: The rise, rise, and fall of Rigathi Gachagua

Rigathi Gachagua stands the risk of becoming one of the shortest-serving deputy presidents in Kenya after his impeachment went through the Senate.

The 59-year-old politician has had a near fairytale political run, clinching both the position of Member of Parliament and Deputy President at his first attempt.

When he took that oath of office two years ago, before a packed stadium in Kasarani, Gachagua cut the image of a man eager, almost impatient, to ascend to the second-highest office in the land.

He had risen nearly meteorically from a businessman, one-term MP, and on to the presidency.

A year before ascending to power, Gachagua was facing a very different side of the government that he was now part of. In 2021, the then Mathira MP was arrested after his home was raided by DCI officers investigating graft and money laundering charges against him.

He blamed his woes on the then-President Uhuru Kenyatta, a once-close confidant turned political foe. Gachagua had for five years served as Uhuru’s personal assistant and custodian of his diary, from 2000 when Uhuru served as Minister for Local Government to 2006 when he became Leader of the Opposition.

His rise to the public limelight was largely driven by his vehement opposition to his former boss’s choice of preferred successor. Uhuru actively supported Raila Odinga as the country’s next president, while Gachagua had cast his lot with William Ruto.

The man who has declared himself ‘the truthful man’ has been in elective politics since 2017 when he vied for and won the Mathira Parliamentary seat.

But before that victory, little was known about Gachagua; indeed, it was his now-deceased brother, the former Governor of Nyeri, who was the more well-known member of the Gachagua family. Rigathi stepped in to steer the ship as his brother was taken ill and hospitalized abroad.

Rigathi Gachagua was born in 1965, the fifth child in a family of former Mau Mau freedom fighters, a heritage he proudly references as 'Mtoto ya Mau Mau.'

He attended Kabiruini Primary School and Kianyaga High School for his O and A levels. He then joined the University of Nairobi for his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Literature.

He also received paramilitary training and underwent an advanced administration course at the Kenya School of Government. He served in the provincial administration, as it was known then, first as a District Officer cadet in 1990.

"Mimi ni mtu nimefanya paramilitary training, kukitokea vita nachukua bunduki," he said in a recent interview.

According to his brief bio on the presidency's website, he was then promoted to the position of District Officer III in the then Kirinyaga District.

In 1991, he was moved to the Office of the President, where he served as a personal assistant to the permanent secretary in the Office of the President, Secretary to the Cabinet, and Head of Public Service.

Between 1993 and 1997, he was promoted to District Officer I and deployed to the then Kakamega and Laikipia districts.

He took a break from public service in 1999 and went into private business, returning in 2001 as personal assistant to Uhuru Kenyatta, who was the Minister for Local Government and later Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament. He served in the position up to 2006.

As the country’s Deputy President, Gachagua has spent considerable time and energy trying to style himself as the Mt. Kenya kingpin.

Part of that has been his advocacy for the interests of what he refers to as the Mt. Kenya community and his "shareholder" narrative, which is one of the reasons he has found himself in troubled waters.