‘What’s good for the goose…’ Gachagua plays clips of Ruto criticizing IG, DCI at impeachment hearing

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has defended himself against removal from office, intimating that one of the grounds under which the impeachment motion was tabled in Parliament is unfair as he was only following in the leadership footsteps of his boss, President William Ruto.

Gachagua spoke on the floor of the House in response to perceived sensational statements he made against National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director General Noordin Haji at the height of the Gen Z-led protests against the now withdrawn Finance Bill, 2024.

The DP, addressing the press in Mombasa on June 26, 2024, called for Haji’s resignation, faulting him for overseeing what he described as a decline in the agency's effectiveness under his stewardship.

Gachagua lamented that since Haji succeeded Major General (Rtd) Philip Wachira Kameru in June 2023 the NIS has become dysfunctional, failing to adequately assess public sentiment, particularly concerning Finance Bill, 2024.

"I sympathise with President Ruto because this information was not available to him. NIS is mandated to provide such information and that is where the problem is; we have a dysfunctional NIS that has exposed the President, the government and the people of Kenya," Gachagua said then.

"Noordin Haji must take responsibility for the deaths that have occurred, the mayhem witnessed and for failing Ruto, the government and Kenya by not doing his job and advising correctly. He must not just take responsibility but resign from that office and allow the president to pick a competent DG."

When presented with the remarks in the impeachment motion, Gachagua sought to clear his name by pulling a checkmate move and invoking that of President Ruto.

He maintained the then contentious comments, stating that even Ruto has never shied away from criticizing government officials who do not effectively perform their roles, yet no impeachment has ever been tabled against him – either during his time as DP, or now as Head of State.

“When the country was caught flat footed with regard to the scope and extent of public’s dissatisfaction with the Finance Bill 2024 which degenerated in the Gen Z protests, it pointed to the failure of the National Intelligence Service in carrying out its mandate,” he told Members of Parliament on Tuesday.

“I am persuaded that the National intelligence Service ought to have known before hand, that the public was completely opposed to the Finance Bill and they ought to have briefed the President before the protests began as this would have caused a change of tact by the Government regarding the proposed bill and the protests which culminated in the loss of innocent lives and destruction of property could have been avoided.”

He added: “Hence, I expressed my opinion on this in my public media briefing in Mombasa and my utterances were not any different from what happens in other countries when there is a lapse or failure by the intelligence agencies.”

The DP went ahead to play a Citizen TV news feature from August 2023 in which President Ruto had read the riot act to Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries he felt were clueless about their dockets.

In the clip, President Ruto also lectured his senior government officials for being late to the signing of performance contracts and demanded a written explanation on the same.

“I am aware that the Kenya Kwanza Government has been on the forefront calling out officers who do not seem to understand their work. Recently, my boss, the President, publicly complained that there are some PSs and CSs who did not seem to understand their roles,” Gachagua said.

Ruto, in the video clip, stated: "Many of you, the people I speak to, don’t even know what is going on in your ministries or departments; you have very scanty information. The moment I know more than you in your ministry, then you must begin to understand that something is very wrong.”

The DP further went ahead to play two more clips of Ruto – during his tenure as Deputy President in the previous government - condemning senior security officials including former Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai, as well as ex-Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti.

“Rigathi Gachagua has learnt his job from his boss, that public officers must be called to order when they fall short of expectations, and I never saw anybody bringing William Ruto here for impeachment for criticizing the IG or the DCI. This is a very unfair allegation,” Gachagua concluded.