When Dr. William Samoei Ruto announced that his running mate would be Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua, many people, including those who were eyeing the position, were astonished.
With his brash, outspoken personality, the 57-year-old who served as a District Officer during late President Daniel Arap Moi’s administration was undoubtedly on the path to writing history.
Shocking as it may have been, Gachagua, who would be considered a political rookie having joined politics in 2017, had beaten outgoing Tharaka Nithi Senator Prof Kithure Kindiki, who many believed was perfect for the job.
Gachagua began life embroiled in politics. He was born in 1965 in Hiriga village to Nashashon Gachagua Reriani and Martha Kirigo, who already had seven other children. According to Gachagua, his father was a technician who serviced guns for Mau Mau fighters, while his mother provided the revolutionaries with ammunition and food.
He attended Kabiruini Primary school before joining Kianyaga High School, where he completed his A and O levels. In 1985 he was accepted to the University of Nairobi, where he studied political science and literature. It’s in his college years that Gachagua began rubbing shoulders with political bigwigs such as the late President Daniel Arap Moi.
Gachagua and Deputy President William Ruto became heavily involved in President Moi’s administration. The pair would organize for various student groups to meet the President at State House or sometimes even at his home in Kabarnet Gardens.
Gachuagua cultivated a close relationship with Professor Philip Mbithi, a Moi loyalist who served as Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet until he was unceremoniously ousted.
Rigathi Gachagua cleaning his finger to manifest his prints after Kiems kit challenge in recognizing his fingerprints. #KenyaDecides2022 #KenyasChoice2022 pic.twitter.com/qMzUBBSBoM
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) August 9, 2022
His association with Mbithi almost proved costly in 1994 when President Moi sacked the professor in a cabinet reshuffle. Somehow, Gachagua managed to maintain and even advance his position in the Moi administration despite the dismissal of his mentor.
He would spend the next several years as a District Officer (DO) stationed in various places such as Kirinyaga, Kiambu, Laikipia, Turkana, Wajir, and Molo. Gachagua has denied ever working as a DO in Molo, but Interior Permanent Secretary Karanja Kibicho has confirmed he worked there.
“It is on record that Gachagua worked in Molo; I am the PS interior, and you hear him in public saying, ‘I didn’t work there,’ I don’t know how you can forget your workplaces so fast,” Kibicho said in an interview with KTN.
In 2002 he became the personal assistant to elected Gatundu South MP Uhuru Kenyatta, who would later become President after winning the 2013 election. He served Uhuru until 2006.
From 2007 to 2017, Gachagua led a relatively quiet life as the CEO of Ridor Group of Companies, a conglomerate that deals in various industries, from real estate to general merchandising.
He and his wife, Pastor Dorcas Wanjiku Rigathi, also devoted themselves to raising two sons in Karen, where he happens to be neighbors with the DP Ruto family.
In 2017, Gachagua joined politics and was elected as an MP for Mathira Constituency on a Jubilee party. However, trouble started after the 2018 handshake between President Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga. Rigathi was among MPs who shifted allegiance to DP Ruto and the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
Like most politicians, Gachagua has had his share of controversy. Kibicho said potential deputy president was stationed in Molo during the 1992 tribal clashes.
ALSO READ: COURT ORDER RIGATHI GACHAGUA TO FORFEIT KSH 200 MILLION GAINED VIA CORRUPTION
Between 1991 and 1992, at least a thousand people were killed while over 200,000 more were displaced due to the country’s first multi-party elections since the 1969 single-party rule elections.
Gachagua claims he was never stationed in Molo, revealing his registration number for doubters to check in the records. While no definitive proof has surfaced to validate Dr. Kibicho’s claims, the accusations cast Gachagua in a poor light, partly because he was deeply entrenched in the Moi regime.
Gachagua has defended his involvement in the 24-year-long regime, stating that Kenyatta, the late former President Mwai Kibaki, and ODM rival Raila Odinga also served under Moi. However, his association with the late President is not the only point of contention for his critics.
Accusations of corruption have stalked Gachagua since his days as a DO. Some say he was high-handed and dictatorial when stationed in Kakamega. Some say he behaved like an unelected deputy governor for his brother, the late Nderitu Gachagua, when the latter was hospitalized in London.
Some have even claimed that Gachagua went so far as to do business with Nyeri County, and that is how he earned part of his enormous fortune. As an MP, all five coffee companies in his home district have collapsed economically.
According to the Mathira North Farmers’ Cooperative Society, Gachagua allegedly ran a scheme in which coffee grown by local farmers would be bought at a low price, then resold in the area at an extreme markup, driving farmers out of business and snatching their livelihoods.
On July 26 this year, Gachagua was charged with six counts of corruption by the Kenyan High Court and was forced to pay cash bail of Ksh12 million or a bond of Ksh25 million before he could be released from custody.
While he claims that the charges are part of an Azimio-backed conspiracy to oust UDA before the elections, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations has been looking into how Gachagua acquired his wealth since October of 2020.
According to the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), Gachagua received Ksh12.5 billion through Rafiki micro-finance bank over seven years which the ARA flagged as suspicious.
Upon further investigation, they discovered Ksh7.3 billion had been withdrawn from about 33 different accounts, leaving a total of Ksh200 million.
However, of that Ksh7.3 billion, Ksh5.3 billion had been withdrawn without justifiable bank statements.
The DCI claims that Gachagua ran a money laundering scheme with the help of two female associates. He would use the women to lure other women and youths into registering companies.
They would then open bank accounts under the names of the shell companies at their local financial institutions.
From there, Gachagua would use his position of power to blackmail local government agencies into issuing tenders for the fraudulent companies via Rafiki micro-finance. When the scheme was successful, the participants would receive loans they would then use to buy substandard goods for resale, usually medical equipment.
In total, Ksh1.7 billion in tenders were allegedly paid to the companies. The court case remains unresolved.
During the running mate debates, Kenyans on Twitter generally agreed that his confrontational attitude played better than Martha Karua’s composed and genteel style.
Gachagua has turned out to be a vicious attack dog for the DP in the Mt. Kenya region, launching scathing attacks on President Uhuru Kenyatta and his family.
It’s just a matter of time before we can determine if Gachagua would rise to become Kenya’s new Deputy President — then, it can be said, his lifelong aggressive brand of politics paid off.