‘UDA has exhausted and wasted Kenya’: Gachagua finally leaves Ruto’s party

Nearly six months after his impeachment, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Monday finally resigned from President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party.

Gachagua was kicked out of Ruto’s government on October 18 after falling out with the head of state, with whom they had in 2022 campaigned on a platform of empowering ‘ordinary’ Kenyans and reforming the economy.

In a strongly worded letter to the UDA secretary-general which he also shared on his social media accounts, the former DP detailed his disillusionment with a party he “believed in” but turned out to be “the most dangerous political moment” for Kenyans, saying its “retrogressive philosophy” is unfit to rule the country.

“The party has exhausted and wasted a Kenyan moment to take off economically, socially, and politically,” he wrote.

According to Gachagua, Ruto lied to Kenyans in his campaign by promising that UDA would be anchored on justice, peace, freedom, and prosperity.

“As a party, and millions of Kenyans, we believed and trusted him and this statement. It was a lie. No nation can be built on a litany of lies,” wrote Gachagua, adding that the ruling party and its umbrella Kenya Kwanza Coalition “moves in sinusoidal malignancy.”

He called Ruto’s government “rogue” and criticized it over the implementation of a “failed” competency-based education curriculum (CBC) and the new university funding model, which he called “incoherent and corrupt.”

Gachagua further condemned Ruto’s government over the recent spate of abductions targeting government critics, saying the Kenya Kwanza regime has been suppressing Kenyans' freedoms.

“UDA has left every Kenyan on their own and behind,” he added.

Since his impeachment, Gachagua has teamed up with political leaders who have fashioned themselves as the new opposition, after Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Raila Odinga, who led the opposition after losing to Ruto in 2022, signed a pact with the President this year.

They include People’s Liberation Party leader Martha Karua, Kalonzo Musyoka of the Wiper Party, and DAP-Kenya’s Eugene Wamalwa, among others.

The leaders say have vowed to together mobilise Kenyans against the Kenya Kwanza administration and later choose who will lead the pack in challenging Ruto in the 2027 polls.