Rise and fall of Gachagua, first Deputy President to be impeached

The former Mathira MP also holds the record of having served the shortest period as DP under the 2010 constitution. Here is a look at how the former second-most powerful man fell from grace and favour with his boss. 

When he took that oath of office two years ago before a packed stadium at Kasarani, Rigathi 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 and one-term MP to deputy president.

Just as fast as he had ascended to the presidency, he was kicked out in a process that took all of three weeks, including parliamentary processes and yet-to-be-concluded court challenges.

Gachagua was stripped not just of the second-highest office in the land but also of the perks and privileges that came with it, days before he was replaced by Prof. Kindiki Kithure.

The fallout between the president and his deputy happened at lightning speed. From bosom buddies who hit the campaign trail together to an estranged pair who couldn’t stay in the same space.

“I have been removed from the WhatsApp group," Gachagua lamented during a live interview in October.

Gachagua, who latched onto the Mount Kenya region votes that he said helped propel Ruto to the presidency, vowed to protect that seat at all costs, locking out those he perceived as intruders.

“Nimeweka mitego State House," he had said regarding Azimio Leader Raila Odinga.

But he didn’t stop there. In his quest to protect the presidency and the Kenya Kwanza government, he vehemently agitated for the shareholding narrative in government.

“Chakula imeiva, lazima tugawe kwanza kwa watu wa nyumba ndio tuangalie nje," he said.

It is this push that provided fertile ground for the moving of the impeachment motion that eventually removed Rigathi Gachagua, once a heartbeat away from the presidency, from office. In both houses of parliament, Gachagua, or "Riggy G," was accused of corruption, insubordination, undermining the government, and practising ethnically divisive politics, among a host of other charges.

But if the Ruto-Gachagua union was on shaky ground, things escalated after the deadly anti-finance bill demonstrations that erupted in Kenya in June.

Critics accused Gachagua of having a hand in the protests, claims he denied. In an unprecedented move, he went on record attacking the government’s security and intelligence agencies in the wake of the protests.

These actions served to drive even more nails into his political coffin.

The self-proclaimed "truthful man" previously served as a one-term MP for Mathira, personal assistant to former President Uhuru Kenyatta, and district officer before achieving what had been seen as impossible by clinching the running mate slot for the Kenya Kwanza presidential ticket.

The fifty-nine-year-old bachelor of arts and political science graduate now has to contend with the title of the man who served for less than half his term as the country’s second deputy president.