Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has defended his push for unity in the Mt Kenya region amidst increasing division in the ruling party and the Kenya Kwanza government.
Speaking during the launch of the Bahati's Empire Reality Show on Thursday, June 7, Gachagua expressed that it would be difficult to unite the country without uniting respective communities.
He explained that he was only using the bottom-up approach as was championed by the President and his team in the run to the 2022 elections.
On the other hand, he noted that there were unique issues facing the region, hence the need to address them.
"I am focused on uniting my people so that they unite with the people of Kenya. As they say, charity begins at home. There is no way Kenya can be united unless we do it the bottom-up way," Gachagua stated.
"You cannot unite from the top, it cannot work. Much as we are working on the economy through the bottom up, the unity of the country is also bottom up."
Therefore, he maintained that he would continue his push for the unity of the vote-rich region despite being called a tribalist.
"Everybody comes from somewhere. People who speak one language have certain things that are peculiar to them. People of the same tongue need to share their thoughts using the same tongue before joining others to talk about Kenya," he added.
Gachagua has been criticised in recent weeks by a section of leaders of the UDA party including President William Ruto himself.
While Ruto and his allies have not directly mentioned Gachagua's name when referring to the 'tribalist', they have noted that it was not time to talk about the unity of a region but that of Kenya.
On the other hand, Ruto also urged MPs to transverse the country following complaints that some Rift Valley MPs were keen on influencing leadership change in Mt Kenya.
“I have been in this politics for a long time, I understand the dangers of politics of dividing people across tribal lines. Please, those of you in government, don’t take that route of tribal politics," Ruto stated during a church service in Bungoma County.
"Let me request and urge all our leaders to focus their energies on the transformation of our country not on dividing Kenyans along tribal lines."
Notably, after being criticised at the Bungoma service, Gachagua dared leaders from Mt Kenya to oppose his unity push in their backyard.
