Deputy President (DP) Rigathi Gachagua has maintained that the Kenya Kwanza administration will only continue to appoint individuals who believed in President William Ruto’s policies before and after the August General Election.
In a joint media Interview on Sunday night, the DP said President Ruto’s government will not discriminate any region in terms of development but when it comes to State jobs, it will only go to persons who have been loyal to the Head of State.
“In terms of development, in terms of public resources, Kenyans must be treated equally. And the President does not share development. Appropriation of funds for development is done by the National Assembly. And all parties are represented through the budget cycle and therefore the issue of discrimination,” he said.
“In fact, as far as resources are concerned, Kenyans are taxpayers and the government of President Ruto and I will serve all Kenyans equally on development,” said DP Gachagua.
As the country awaits for President Ruto to unveil his Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) and envoys this week, Mr Gachagua said only those who believe in the bottom-up economic model are the ones who will picked in what could lock out a number of allies of Azimio La Umoja One Kenya boss Raila Odinga who might be eyeing those positions.
“When it comes to form a government, there is no President anywhere in the world who would invite people to his government who did not believe in him, who do not believe in his agenda, who cannot support him because they don’t understand his agenda. It is by the number of shares that you have, you are commensurate commitment to the success of that government,” said DP Gachagua.
He added that: “Choices have consequence. It’s a political right to choose whoever you want, but choices have consequences. There is no way you can say you don’t believe in me or President Ruto, you don’t believe in his programmes, you don’t believe in his agenda and you want to be in his Cabinet. That cannot happen.”
With the Azimio team having accused the President of appointing only two communities in government, Mr Gachagua said how will they appoint individuals who have since declared that they do not recognize Kenya Kwanza administration hence noting that the opposition are hypocritical in their demands.
“They don’t recognise President William Ruto and they don’t recognise his government then the following day, they are saying this government is discriminating against them. If you don’t believe in a President, if you don’t believe in his agenda, how then do you expect to be included in his government?he posed.
On Thursday, Mr Odinga accused the Head of State has been insensitive to the plights of Kenyans at the expense of rewarding only Kalenjins and Kikuyus with State jobs.
“In the history of Kenya, it is the first time our country is facing a two-tribe regime. An exclusive one-tribe regime in Rwanda resorted in genocide. In 2007/2008 the security forces were unable to control the violence in Rift Valley simply because of a one sided security force. Kenya Kwanza is a one sided illegitimate regime that is planting seeds of ethnic hegemony for a future genocide in Kenya. Only two communities are getting appointed to public service,” said Mr Odinga on Thursday.
The former Prime Minister added: “The tribalisation and ethnicisation of our civil service by this illegitimate regime through targeted sacking and firing of legitimate public appointments is a career killer and recipe for future genocide.”
Mr Gachagua went ahead to accuse Mr Odinga of speaking from both sides of his mouth when it comes to inclusivity saying that when some ODM MPs held talks with President Ruto and himself last month, they were de-whipped instead of encouraging to continue with the spirit.
But DP Gachagua insisted that the Kenya Kwanza administration is open for any leader as long as it is about development and working for Kenyans whole noting that there will be no handshake.
“Bringing people who are opposed to your leadership is what costed Uhuru Kenyatta when he brought people in government through handshake. For us, we are open to all leaders to discuss development but there will be no handshake, it won’t happen,” he said.
“Uhuru Kenyatta brought characters into his government who did not believe in him and his agenda and in the process they messed the whole Jubilee transformative agenda. William Ruto will not make that mistake,” he added.
On the issue of Kenya Kwanza merger which has brought rebellion in Dr Ruto’s camp, DP Gachagua said it will be voluntary and no one will be forced to fold up arguing that they believe in democracy.
“That is Cleophas Malala’s style of popularizing our United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and myself and the President we have allowed him to promote the paper but we have asked him that no one will be coerced to fold and join UDA. I have spoken to him (Mr Malala) we don’t need to coerce people to join UDA. It was his way of bringing energy to the party. If they don’t want that is fair enough,” said Mr Gachagua.
In regard to requesting Sh1.5 billion from the National Treasury before being sworn-in, DP Gachagua distanced himself from such saying that it was the former regime reinstating the Sh1.5 billion it had cut from the annual budget of Office of the Deputy President Sh4 billion which had been effected during the last term of Uhuru Kenyatta administration.
“Ukur Yattani, former Cabinet Secretary of National Treasury in conjunction with Kinuthia Mbugua former State House Comptroller under the direction of Uhuru Kenyatta cut all funds to the office of the DP. For 4 years President William Ruto (then DP): fueled government cars from his own pocket, he bought tea for his office. These two officers who were attending meetings in his office were embarrassed and they sought to undo what they had done to save their faces. Budget of the Office of the Deputy President was Sh4 billion but they went ahead to cut it and that is what they were trying to reinstate. Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua had nothing to do with it,” said DP Gachagua.
Mr Yatani last week revealed that immediately after the August 9 elections, he was prevailed upon to disburse Sh1.59 billion to DP Gachagua’s office.
In a statement, Mr Yatani said the request was made in line with Article 223 of the Constitution which empowers the Treasury CS to release funds under special circumstances without parliamentary approval.
“It included Sh300 million for cars and Sh300 million for hospitality, a request that I did not grant in full but considered an amount of Sh500 million due to the financial constraints we had at the time,” Mr Yatani said.
The DP also underscored that Kenya Kwanza administration is not interested in destabilizing the opposition underscoring that the government needs a vibrant oversight
“We have no intention to muscle the opposition, we want to strengthen the opposition. There will be no handshake with anybody. If those people want to talk to us on matters development, we are ready, but them coming to join government, no,” he said.
