By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- While roundly condemning the police for using excessive force against the protesters resulting to snuffing out of the lives of innocent youths, the DP observed. These are our children and had not broken any law.
- During the interview President Ruto avoided responding to the question and told Ageyo.
- The talk of a fallout between me and my deputy is neither here nor there.
- He is my deputy. He is not here and he is the one supposed to respond to that question.
- I cannot speak for him. You are free to look for him and engage him if there is something else you want to know.
I watched and listened to how President William Ruto responded to the questions posed by top editors of three mainstream media houses during a live interview at State House Nairobi.
One of them touched on his relationship with his deputy Rigathi Gachagua.
Joe Ageyo of Nation Media Group (NMG) wanted to know whether they were really reading from same script.
Ageyo referred him to a statement that the Deputy President had released while in Mombasa. Mr President, a few minutes earlier you had addressed a televised press conference at State House Nairobi.
Both of you focussed on the same subject matter of Generation-Z protests.
The DP contradicted you by distancing himself from sentiments that some of youths involved in these protests were criminal gangs.
While roundly condemning the police for using excessive force against the protesters resulting to snuffing out of the lives of innocent youths, the DP observed. These are our children and had not broken any law.
During the interview President Ruto avoided responding to the question and told Ageyo.
The talk of a fallout between me and my deputy is neither here nor there.
He is my deputy. He is not here and he is the one supposed to respond to that question.
I cannot speak for him. You are free to look for him and engage him if there is something else you want to know.
President Ruto’s interview came at a time when a headline story appearing on Weekly Citizen newspaper stated that close allies of President Ruto had hatched a plot to impeach the DP.
The story also alleged that the DP had been blocked from accessing State House.
After reading this story, two questions came to my mind. Was the President aware of plans to impeach his deputy and he had seek an appointment before accessing him at State House? If a plot to impeach him is real, can his political enemies manage to marshal enough votes in parliament?
The constitution provides that the motion to impeach a sitting DP can only sail through if it garners two-third majority or above in parliament.
There is also the issue of whether the grounds cited by his accusers meets the requisite threshold of law.
The motion of the impeachment can only be allowed if the mover manages to convince the house that the actions of DP amount to gross violation of the constitution and the international treaties.
I heard earlier listened to the remarks by Kiambu Senator Karungo Wa Thangwa. He seemed to confirm that President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua were not reading the same script.
We the people of the Mountain are asking President William Ruto to engage DP Gachagua in dialogue the same way he is engaging Generation-Z and millennials.
The senator, who spoke in presence of the Deputy President in Maragwa, stated. We have heard that the President has initiated a process of reaching out to the young people.
This is after they took to the streets to register their strong reservations with the way the country is being governed.
We want the President to use the same template to engage the DP.
While fondly referring Gachagua as Riggy-G, the senator further noted that Generation-Z and Riggy-G share one thing in common “letter G’.
You can therefore ignore Riggy-G at your own peril.
He added: DP Gachagua is our kingpin in the Mountain. I’m therefore answerable to him. So this is what I want to tell the President. You cannot reach me without going through him.
The DP was also accompanied by a host of elected leaders from this region.
To me, Karungo’s sentiments which were echoed by all the speakers including area MP Mary Wa maua, were weighty.
As we know, the people of Mount Kenya region voted for President Ruto to the last man and woman during 2022 polls. He garnered 87 percent and these are the votes that catapulted him to the seat of president.
Kiambu senator’s point was therefore clear. The DP was a force to reckon with. He helped the President to get those votes. He has not lost that popularity.
So, If the President opts to ignore him he was bound to lose this critical support base.
We recall that President Ruto made a raft of promises to the voters in this region during campaign.
The position of the DP is that most of these promises have not been fulfilled.
As a community, what we hate is betrayal, he was once quoted as saying.
I’m therefore sure the issue of unfulfilled promises would feature prominently if President agree to engage him in a formal and structured manner.
Besides the DP would demand to be respected and recognized as the senior most leader in the Mountain
In Mombasa, the DP emphasized. During the campaign and when we assumed office I and President Ruto said we will be listening to what the people of Kenya are telling us. So, the youths had a right to air their views. These madness of killing our youths should never happen again in our country.
I’m happy to note that the President has listened to the young people. This by refusing to sign the Finance Bill.
The DP laid the blame squarely on the doorsteps of the Director General of National Intelligence Service Nordin Haji.
He had totally failed the President and misled him. If he gave the President the correct advice, this bloodshed could have been avoided. The President could have moved with speed to preempt the killings. Therefore, I call upon the head of NIS to resign with immediate effect.
The DP also conveyed messages of condolences to the families of those who lost their loved ones.
Some days earlier, the President had attended a church service in Nyahururu. He reiterated: “I have listened to what the young people are saying. These are our children and we have to listen to them. I’m going to engage them and I want to assure them of my commitment to address the concerns they had raised”
He spoke as Generation Z piled pressure on members of parliament (MPs) to reject the Finance Bill 2024.
They have also listed a raft of demands that they want President Ruto to address.
For the first time, the protests were digitally driven. Besides, thousands of young people under the banner of Gen Z demonstrated a high level courage and boldness.
The youths who had turned up to oppose the Finance Bill 2024 were aged between 18-34 years.
It is worth to note some protestors were armed with smartphones and according to some politicians some had been dropped by Uber taxis.
The church service in Nyahururu was presided by ACK archbishop who was quoted in a post on social media as saying that his son was taking part in these protests.
A renowned political analyst had alleged the protests were being sponsored by a foreign power. He did name this power and what it intended to achieve.
But organizers were quick to dismiss these claims. By then, the protests had been held in 18 counties.
The protests started on a a day the chairpersons of the two powerful committees of the National Assembly namely Budget and Appropriation and Finance and National Planning tabled their financial report in parliament.
In the report, we have clustered taxes in contention into three categories. We have removed some and we have proposed zero rating and exemptions on others.
They include proposed 16 percent VAT on bread; 2.5 percent motor vehicle tax. Eco levy will also be adjusted with baby pampers, sanitary towels and other products being zero-rated.
We have also listened to parents, guardians and other stakeholders in education sector. So, we have reinstated the school feeding programme. We have also allocated enough funds to employ Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.
But Generation-Z and millennial would hear none of this. They maintained that the budget should be more leaner.
The protestors who carried placards and flyers with inscription ‘Occupy Parliament’ chanted anti-President William Ruto slogans.
This is not the first time we are witnessing this. Similar protests had rocked the country during the tenures of former Presidents Daniel Arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta.
During the public participation, many Kenyans reasoned; Yes, we agree paying taxes is a legal civic duty. However, some of the taxes contained in Finance Bill 2024 are very high.
The burden will be too heavy particularly to the low income earners.
So, we recommend they should be reduced.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
