Gachagua lashes out at Murkomen, dares their arrest

Former Deputy President, Rigathi Gachagua has absolved himself from blame that he funded goons to infiltrate Gen Z protests, even as he took a swipe on Interior Cabinet Secretary, Kipchumba Murkomen over his claims that a coup was in the offing.

Gachagua said that Murkomen would not have walked on the streets of Nairobi, in the first place, if he knew too well of an attempted coup and accused the National Intelligence Service (NIS) of sleeping on their job, which ended up in huge destruction chaos and deaths.

The former DP claimed that Murkomen is a young excited Cabinet Secretary full of himself because of money and power and cannot give instructions of ‘shoot to kill’ to the police.

“I do not know how fragile this government is, that the Interior Cabinet Secretary is walking in the streets of Nairobi in the morning and they are saying there was an attempted coup. If they had intelligence that the goons were paid by Rigathi or anybody else, why didn’t they arrest these goons,” he said, in an interview with NTV yesterday night.

He added: “If they were my goons, today they would have been shot dead, or in custody. If they had intelligence that I had paid goons to come and cause chaos in Nairobi, why didn’t they act on that intelligence? Why did they supervise the goons wreaking havoc in the streets of Nairobi. How did they allow goons to go to a police station and they had intelligence. I think the CS must respect Kenyans.”

While at the Senate, Gachagua said Murkomen insisted that the national police is independent and cannot be directed on what to do but has since changed tune and issued directive of ‘shoot to kill’ for anybody within the vicinity of a police station.

“I heard Murkomen telling police officers to shoot and he would protect them, that is a lie and they should not believe him, they have seen what has happened with Albert Ojwang’s case. Please follow the law, they should not follow what Murkomen has said. He is those young boys around Ruto with a bloated ego, a lot of arrogance and impunity.”

Also, during the interview, Gachagua revealed that when they came into office, the President initially wanted to appoint Murkomen as the CS Interior but was against that move, saying he advised him (Ruto) that the job needed someone mature and able to regulate the security sector with calm.

On the events of the Gen Z protests, Gachagua said it was evident that in Nairobi, the real goons came after 6.00pm and the downtown looting was done in darkness under police supervision and that is why they were not harmed.

According to Gachagua, if someone had funded them, they would have been arrested by now and asked to confess who had sent them but no action was taken despite working in full glare of the police.

The former DP also said he deliberately kept off going to the streets and chose to stay in his house during the protests, where he watched as action unfolded until the Government stopped livestreaming.

He said he has never financed the Gen Z but only supports their course that is against abductions and stopping extrajudicial killings but had no business going to the streets to join them because they are also not politically inclined.

“I did not want to join the protests. During the 2024 protests, the Gen Z asked us to keep off the protest and that is as it should be because they do not want to be owned by anybody. These are our young people who are bright and intelligent. If I would have turned up on the streets, it would have given credence to ridiculous accusations that I am the one who financed Gen Z,” he said.

He said that claims he was behind the Gen Z protests are totally misinformed, noting that the government not only wants to run away from the truth but instead, continues to sink into more trouble because of burying their heads in the sand.

 “Anytime that Kenyans have expressed themselves about the way the country is being run and governed, it is said that those people have been financed, mobilized and incited and therefore they will never address the real problem,” he said.

He went on: “What happened on Wednesday was the first anniversary of the Gen Z massacre of 2024 which was presided over by President William Ruto and executed by Kithure Kindiki and you know for sure how many people died. The Gen Z protest of 2024 was spontaneous, as they were protesting Finance Bill 2024, mismanagement of the country, corruption and general impunity exhibited by this administration.”

He said the President then, under the pressure of the Gen Z, undertook to address all the issues they raised but got former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga to his side and got political comfort that with Raila, he does not need anybody else.

He accused Ruto of backtracking on all critical issues that had been raised and since then, impunity has continually been exhibited in the country, which saw the people get back to the streets to express their displeasure.

“Gen Z protests need nobody to finance them, the Gen Z are leaderless, tribeless, have no structure or organization and again I think it is playing around with the minds of Kenyans to imagine that Rigathi Gachagua or anyone can coordinate activities in 26 counties at the same time,” he uttered.

According to Gachagua, the government must stop taking people for granted, insisting that if these activities were planned, NIS would have been able to pick it.

“We have NIS, where were they, if they did not know then they slept on the job and are not supposed to be in office. If they knew and did nothing about it, then they are guilty of failing to stop anarchy and violence but from where I sit, the protests were very peaceful. The Gen Z were not violent, they had water and smart phones, the violence was brought about by infiltration of goons who looted shops, escorted by police created mayhem as police watched.”

He said it is not his responsibility to arrest goons and does not have that capacity and wondered why up to date, many protestors were arrested, others killed but claimed that not a single goon was shot or arrested.

“If they know they were organized by so and so, why did you allow them to terrorize Kenyans and destroy property, what have you done since they did that. Why didn’t you deal with them on the spot? The evidence is that when you see goons in police vehicles, who owns the vehicles, that is the State. If you see goons wreaking havoc and the police are just watching, you do not need rocket science to know who has sponsored the goons

He said there are attempts to create chaos in the Mt Kenya region and then blame it on popular leaders from those areas who criticize the Government.

He said Ruto led a narrative against former President Uhuru Kenyatta and is once again seeking to place blame on leaders from the region to lose support from their people and alienate them.

He also took a swipe on Majority leader in the National Assembly, Kimani Ichung’wah over his claims that there were attempts to attack his father and dared the Government to arrest him alongside other Mt Kenya leaders accused of being behind Wednesday protest

I want to tell my brother Ruto, when you are in a hole, you stop digging… you do not dig any deeper. Ypu have persecuted and humiliated our community, you now have a scheme on how to destroy their businesses and try to blame their leaders, you want to persecute their leaders,” Gachagua claimed.