President William Ruto has explained the genesis of the fallout with his former Rigathi Gachagua with some interesting claims, just hours before the start of his Mount Kenya Presidential tour.
The President spoke to local media in an interview in Sagana, where he revealed interesting intrigues behind the broken relationship with Gachagua, accusing the former DP of failing to get behind the Kenya Kwanza government's manifesto.
According to the President, everything unraveled when Gachagua started to feud with other government workers, including Members of Parliament and his aide, Farouk Kibet.
"I sat him down and told him you're the deputy president. Why are you dealing with them? I asked him to let us work," Ruto explained.
Further, the president criticized Gachagua for allegedly failing to fall behind government projects - something which he admits played a bit of a role in the pair's fallout. The President further accused Gachagua of malice since the former DP failed to defend the government in public.
"The Deputy President's main role is to help the President. When I was DP, the person to defend the programs like roads and hospitals. I went to more TV stations more times than the President himself because it is the DP's job to profile the President's work," Ruto observed.
He added, "Have you ever seen Rigathi defend the government's projects one time? For 2 years, he never stepped to any station or in public to speak on government projects."
The President reiterated that Gachagua's failure to get behind the government's projects further strained their relationship, leading to its eventual breakdown.
"I told him, 'my brother, we have housing and UHC in our manifesto as well as Teachers' salaries and promotions. We made a commitment to the people of Kenya on housing and UHC to make sure we have a proper CBC model. If you cannot defend these projects, how are we going to run this government?'" Ruto added.
At the height of the President and his deputy's feud, Members of Parliament allied to the two leaders also started feuding, with a section allied to the Kenya Kwanza government launching plans to impeach the DP - something which the President claims he tried to stop twice.
While denying any involvement in Gachagua's impeachment motion, Ruto claimed several MPs had already made up their minds on ousting the former Mathira MP.
After their relationship completely broke down, Ruto alleges Gachagua threatened to 'make him a one-term president'. These threats, according to Ruto, ultimately fueled the war between Kenya Kwanza-allied MPs and Gachagua's allies in Parliament.
During the same interview, the President also hit out at Gachagua's claims earlier on Monday, when the former DP claimed Ruto does not have any projects in Mount Kenya. According to Ruto, he has several Mount Kenya projects, including a road allegedly leading up to Gachagua's Wamunyoro residence.
