Deputy President Rigathi Gacagua was dramatically accused of plotting against President William Ruto as the night of drama and long knives continued
By THEDISPATCH.DIGITAL REPORTER
Deputy President sensationally claimed last night that he and former President Uhuru Kenyatta were targets of a smear campaign by the National Intelligence Service but was immediately rebutted with claims of intending to profit from the President’s failure.
While Gacagua probably intended to benefit from associating with Uhuru Kenyatta in his (Gacagua’s) efforts to control the votes of the Gikuyu tribe, is tactics have elicited concern and last night appears to have taken his quest too emotionally and a little too far by icing it an ethnic dimension that pitted him (and by extension the Gikuyu) against Haji’s Somali. Haji was the son of former provincial administrator and Moi-era hawk Hassan Haji and was appointed to his job after serving as Director of Public Prosecutions.
Last night Gacagua sensationally accused Haji of incompetence and failing to advise the President appropriately on the extent of the discontent and organisation of Gen Z that resulted in several deaths and injuries on Tuesday.
Gacagua also claimed that he and former President Uhuru Kenyatta were the targets of a smear campaign by NIC Boss Haji, accusing him of incompetence as he was hired despite being a junior officer at NIS. “The National Intelligence Service slept on the job, and the problem is simple. The Director General of the National Intelligence Service, Noordin Haji, was a junior who served in the National Intelligence Service before he was appointed as DPP.”
He went on to say that it was “embarrassing to me as Deputy President that it has taken protests, deaths, mayhem, destruction for the President to know the truth, yet there is an organisation charged with that responsibility.”
“When he was appointed to the office of the director general, because of inferiority complex, he chased away all the people who were senior to him when he was in the service, therefore crippling the capacity of that service and making it dysfunctional.” But to this, Haji responded later that Gacagua was unhappy because the “DP is still bitter that many of his tribesmen who were serving in the NIS but sabotaging H.E William Ruto were removed from the service. It can only mean that the DP’s desire is to sabotage the President so that if the president fails, he can benefit from it.” This was in reference to the Constitutional provision that the Deputy President takes over power immediately the President is incapable of performing the functions of that office either by death, resignation or impeachment.
On his part, Haji responding almost immediately accused the DP of being dishonest and a plotter against the President. Haji told Gacagua that he was not part of the NIS chain of command and could not therefore be privy to information or intelligence shared with the President.
Haji went ahead to accuse the DP of having a personal interest in NIS reports, especially those on the recent unrest.
On calls for his resignation Haji retorted, “The DP should be aware that the service has files and extensive information that are damaging to him but we have kept it under wraps.” Then daring him to bring it on, “we invite him to shed off the DP tag so that his service can show him what a personal fight looks like.”
Reacting to the sparring, former Azimio la Umoja Alliance Spokesman Prof Makau Mutua said on X that the DP’s statement was “reckless and bitter”. The statement “against NIS Director Noordin Haji is tribal, unhinged, mean, and unworthy of his office. It’s a threat to national security. Methinks it’s really an attack on the President himself. In my considered view, it’s solid legal ground for IMPEACHMENT. Unbelievable!”
Soon after calling for the resignation of Haji, Gacagua found himself on the receiving end when former Mandera Governor and current Senator Capt Ali Ibrahim Roba fired in defence of the embattled NIS Boss. Writing on X, the Senator said; “These recent tragic events during demonstrations against the finance bill highlight a disturbing trend of deflecting responsibility at the highest levels of our government. Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s persistent narrative, blaming Noordin Haji, the Director General of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), is unfounded and morally reprehensible.”
