Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has revealed that he was removed from a WhatsApp group containing President William Ruto’s official schedule, further highlighting the deepening tensions between the two leaders.
Speaking during an exclusive interview on Friday night, Gachagua said the removal has left him in the dark about key presidential functions.
“I no longer know the president’s schedule. My team and I were removed from that WhatsApp group by the president’s Private Secretary, Mr. Maiyo. It’s very petty,” Gachagua disclosed.
The deputy president suggested that this exclusion is part of a broader plot to isolate him from government operations.
“Everyone knows that there was a meeting in Nyahururu and another one at a Cabinet Secretary’s house in Kitisuru, Nairobi, where the plot to remove me was hatched. It’s not a secret,” he claimed.
Gachagua further explained that his absence from recent key presidential events was a result of this exclusion. “If I’m not part of the group, how am I supposed to know where the president will be?” he questioned.
He explained that was the reason he was not at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to receive his boss this week when he flew back from Germany.
“I was not aware of the time the president was arriving,” he said, explaining, “even today, I don’t know what time he is leaving for New York and he has not spoken to me since morning.”
The deputy president expressed frustration, saying that President Ruto had once assured him he would not face the same kind of intimidation that Ruto endured during his tenure as deputy president under Uhuru Kenyatta.
“The president promised that he wouldn’t allow people to intimidate me, as he was intimidated when he was deputy. But what I am experiencing now is far worse,” Gachagua lamented.
Despite the apparent fallout, Gachagua warned that any impeachment motion against him would require the president’s approval. “No motion to impeach a deputy president can be tabled in Parliament without the president’s knowledge, so if it’s tabled, then it must have his approval,” he stated.
