Orals East Africa>DP Gachagua’s accused of killing confidence in Kenyan state in NIS attack At the hut of the story

Written by Oral East Africa

The power of the state to control politicians has always been rumored to lie on an intimidating secret file compiled by state intelligence, to coerce certain positions or to end careers.

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s impeachment file reads like one such file, that shows the state had all the information to pursue him for corruption but chose to sit on it until convenient.

The detail of the investigations, bank account numbers, nature of transactions, and a trail of the networks used by Gachagua to steal taxes show the hand of the National Intelligence Service, whose boss Noordin Haji was attacked by the Deputy President when the country fell apart on July 25.

In a televised address from Mombasa, Gachagua accused the National Intelligence Service (NIS) director general, Noordin Haji, of failing to adequately advise the president on the Finance Bill 2024 that resulted in the widespread chaos and loss of lives in Nairobi and other major towns.

Fragile state

In the section of the impeachment notice that brings up the attack, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is accused of revealing the fragility of the Kenyan state, and how it is a threat and not the protection of lives and property.

“They had the potential, given the circumstances prevailing in the country at the time, to significantly diminish public confidence in the viability of the Kenyan state and its ability to protect the lives and properties of its citizens,” the impeachment motion by Mutuse Eckomas Mwengi, Member of Parliament, Kibwezi West Constituency reads.

The fight between President William Ruto and his Deputy Rigathi Gachagua revealed why Kenya’s political system is fundamentally corrupt and incorrigible.

Most of the accusations leveled against him are the same accusations that have been leveled against other politicians including diverting roads into private property, procurement corruption, and nepotism.

Limit government

DP Gachagua is accused of laundering corrupt proceeds through acquisitions of luxury hotels including Treetops, Outspan, Olive Gardens and Vipingo.

This is typical of Kenya’s elite, to crowd at the gates, the ports where goods are imported to add charges on consumers and the luxury hotels where they can position their companies and those of their relatives for extraction from food and hospitality and branding of the Kes527 billion tourism sector.

The choice to burn DP Gachagua is likely to further erode trust in the state rather than build it, revealing the rot across government and how institutions serve political interests rather than the people's.

Like most centralized states that do too much, it may be time for kenya to institute another round of wholesale reforms or limit government spending and interference in private life, given that government waste is inevitable.