Pastor Dorcas will succeed Rachel Ruto as the second lady of Kenya.
Dorcas Rigathi is Kenya’s Second Lady in waiting. The office awaits her after the declaration of Presidential results early in the week, confirming her husband Rigathi Gachagua had alongside William Ruto been elected Deputy President-elect and President-elect respectively in the August 9, 2022 elections.
Dorcas will be walking into a space currently being occupied by Rachel Ruto, who will be elevated to the office of the First lady following her husband’s ascendancy to the country’s highest political office.
Darcas’ new status will be confirmed as soon as the recently announced winners of the Presidential poll take an oath of office. But, how much do you know about the Second Lady in waiting? here is what we know.
Early life of hardship
Life might be great for Mrs. Rigathi right now, but it has not been a walk in the park. Trouble, both for her and her family, began when she lost her father at the age of 11. She described the period that followed as one full of abject poverty. As if her dad’s demise was not enough, her sister passed on shortly after due to pneumonia.
Life had turned for the worse. Around this period, she recalls living in a chicken coop with her siblings.
Dorcas and her siblings had lost touch with her mother after her father’s death for a period of 6 months. Left to fend for themselves, they were forced to look for work in order to survive. She was hired as a maid, while her brothers did odd jobs here and there. Eventually, they reunited with their mother who, they later found out, had been admitted to the Kiambu Hospital.
“When my mom was away we didn’t have a place to stay we stayed in a chicken pen…the eight of us. Without our mother, it’s all we were able to afford. In fact, one of our sisters died outside there of pneumonia,” she said during an interview in July.
Undaunted by the difficult circumstances she found herself in at the time, Dorcas says she will always be grateful that she was able to attend school.
Meeting Gachagua
Regardless of the fact that Dorcas attended school later than usual, in fact, she was in the same class as her youngest brother Oscar, she performed well enough to be admitted to Alliance Girls. She later joined Kenyatta University and it was during this time that she met Gachagua.
He was a student at the University of Nairobi in 1985 and was attending a joint university event that President Daniel Moi was expected to grace. Events of this day made it a defining moment of her life.
“I remember he was wearing a suit, he has always worn suits and a brown tie. I thought he was interesting. On that day, actually, I’d felt like life was not worth living. So I decided that trip was going to be my last. Moi was visiting and I decided to go and see what would happen if I broke the security ring. I wanted to rant at the president making it look like I was going to do something wrong so that they would shoot me,” she says.
Fortunately, her suicidal plot was thwarted by Gachagua who offered her words of comfort when she confessed what she was about to do. The brief conversation between the two sparked off a love story that would culminate in their marriage in 1989. The couple is currently blessed with two sons, Kevin and Keith.
Her ministry and work with the church
According to Dorcas, her work with the church began in 2002 when she joined the house of Grace ministries working as an Usher. However, it could be argued that her devotion to God started when she was a child. She says she made the promise after her sister’s death.
“…Before we moved to Kiandutu, I had promised God if you only bless me, because we didn’t see how we were ever going to get out of that poverty…but mum told us when God is your father things can change and miracles can happen,” she said.
In the years since, she has kept that promise and continues to be what she calls “God’s warrior”. Following her prominence, after her husband became Ruto’s running mate, she has been lauded for her powerful sermons, particularly the one she delivered at a Sunday service attended by the President-elect who was still campaigning in the Mt Kenya region at the time.
In her sermon delivered in May this year, she emphasised the importance of the clergy being involved in politics and preached against what she called fence-sitting.
“The clergy represented here is a pool of untouched potential. These are men of substance and influence. In our engagement, we have agreed that we will no longer act safe, never be fence-sitters or say we are neutral,” she said.
In addition to heading the Dorcas Rigathi Mercy Ministries, she is also the Patron of the Association of Pentecostal and Evangelical Clergy of Kenya (APECK). APECK brings together Clergy from various pastors’ fellowships and Colleges of Bishops from all parts of the country, becoming the single most inclusive body of the clergy in the country.
Widow’s initiative
Inspired by the experiences she went through as a child, Mrs Rigathi is dedicated to helping widows through the Dorcas Rigathi Ministries.
“I started the widow ministry because of my background. I saw how ostracized these women are and how it can be so unfair (to them). Just because a man has died and left a woman with children, that woman does not become a burden, but society takes widows as burdens. People they don’t seem to care about. That’s how I felt when I was young. I could see how my uncles were very very unfair to my mom.”
For her philanthropy and work with widows in the country, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Breakthrough International Bible University.
On the campaign trail
Earlier this year, after her husband Rigathi Gachagua became William Ruto’s running mate, while fielding questions about her husband’s new role, she said that she would be happy to support her husband on the campaign trail if he asked.
“If he asks me I will go, there is nothing big about politics that I don’t know. Politics and church are not far apart. There is no kingdom without politics. The first politics, the king and the prophet came together,” she said.
She maintained her staunch support for her husband even when the campaign was mired in controversy. In May, allegations of graft were levelled at the Mathira MP by the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA).
She dismissed those claims saying, “We have grown a thick skin for it. He himself is a seasoned politician. All these are instigated to narrow his scope and slow him down. Of course its all twisted, because we know him. I for sure know him.”
Dorcas remained a conspicuous figure throughout the Ruto, Rigathi campaign until its conclusion.
Mrs Rigathi brings to her new appointment an unbreakable spirit, an enthusiasm toward philanthropy and courage in adversity; all traits that Kenya would be lucky to find in their next Second Lady.
